9-11 and That Day In September

Six years...... Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday.

I remember the alarm going off that morning. I had planned the night before to get up right with the alarm and get busy right away that morning. I reached up, shut the alarm off, and rolled back over and went back to sleep.

The phone rang. What time is it? I looked at the clock before I answered the phone, it was 9:30.
It was my husband. Did I have the TV on, he asked. I turned the set on and asked why. Because, he said, the twin towers had been hit by planes and both towers where gone. Gone? How could they be gone. I turned to CNN and they were replaying the collapse of the north tower.

My God! All that was left was a pillar of smoke and ash. The whole island of Manhattan was engulfed in this huge cloud of smoke, ash, and fumes from burning plastic and jet fuel.

The eeriest thing I remember seeing on the news coverage that day was when the dust had cleared and you could hear again the sound you heard was the chirping of the fireman's safety alarms. There were so many of these things chirping there warnings of danger. I just knew that a lot of those alarms would be on a lot of firemen who would never be seen alive again.

I remember all the paper falling, the people jumping, the buildings collapsing. After a while, probably in the afternoon, I stepped outside. What a beautiful day. Iowa had as blue a sky as New York City. How could God let something so terrible happen on such a beautiful day??
I just figured that out today. The weather was beautiful all across North America. That is the only way all those 4000 or so planes were able to be put to the ground in an amazing 3 hours. Saved a lot of lives that day.

We need to remember that day. The heroism that took place that day was unprecedented. The lives that were lost of those who where just doing what they did five days a week, going to work.

I will always remember September 11th. It is my Pearl Harbor, my Kennedy assassination.
I will always take the time, the moments of silence to honor those who lost there live that day because of human hate manifested and wrapped in the guise of religious fanaticism.

I am honored to be in the cast of That Day In September. To be able to share this moment in time with an audience and to get people to think... Thank-you Matt, for casting me. I feel that we honor the victims and the survivors with each performance.

Only two more performances to go. September 14th and 15th at Arts a la Carte at Old Brick in Iowa City. Performance starts at 8:00.