Last thoughts of 2001
In a matter of hours the year of 2001 will become only a memory. While past years often have a way of blending into each other and ultimately fading in memory, I imagine 2001 and its vividness will remain clear long after this year is over. Although much has happened in the 365 days of this year, 2001 will primarily be remembered for the events that took place on one single early morning in September.
On the morning of September eleventh, I was writing at my desk. The television was turned on to MSNBC, mostly for background noise. “IMUS in the Morning” was interrupted for what would be the first attack on the World Trade Center. A plane had crashed into one of the towers! What a tragic accident I thought. Maybe the pilot had his coordinates mixed up. Maybe the equipment of the plane had malfunctioned. While watching the live reports, I went online into the chat-rooms. I wrote in bold text, “A PLANE HAS CRASHED INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER”. Nobody responded to what I had wrote; I couldn’t believe it. I went to another chatroom and still no one seemed to care. I received a private message from a chat-friend, “Good Morning”, she wrote. I frantically typed to her, telling her about the plane crash. Instead of voicing her concern or shock, she began to tell me how boring the chat-rooms had been.
When the second plane had crashed into the tower, all the maybes of malfunctions and pilot error slowly vanished. As my mind absorbed each moment as it happened, I still struggled to figure out what was happening. I kept wondering how such a thing could happen; the possibility of terrorism never even crossed my mind until the news people had made the observation. I briefly returned to the chat-rooms, yet the indifference to all the happenings was more than I could bear.