By: Daniel Nardini
There have been documentaries about where people were on September 11, 2001, during the Al Qaeda attacks. In my case I was at a train station waiting to go into downtown Chicago. I had an interview at the time. One thing I noticed that was strange was that there were no people on the platform. Despite this observation I went to the ticket agent. The ticket agent told me that no trains were running into Chicago, and that only a few trains were carrying people out of Chicago. I asked what was happening. He told me to go switch on the TV.
This is when I found out about the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and on the Pentagon on that Tuesday morning. I realized that I had a story to write. So I got into my car and headed to work. Regardless of what happened on September 11th, I had to go to work. Every shopping mall had been closed down. Just about every business in many suburban towns had also closed. O’Hare International Airport was completely shut down as was just about all modes of public transportation from trains and buses to school buses. It was eerie not to hear airplanes taking off and landing. This is how it was for a week.
In a way we were all affected by September 11th whether directly or indirectly. The things that happened to us in the decade following September 11th is like being in the eye of a whirlwind. We saw the start of the war in Afghanistan (now America’s longest war), the Iraq War, the Enron Scandal, the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and the beginning of the economic upheaval that would become known as the Great Recession in 2008. Ironically, during this time the U.S. government finally got the architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, this year just shy of the tenth anniversary of September 11th.
There can be no question in my mind that September 11th has led to probably one of the most traumatic decades in U.S. history. Rarely has one event caused so much human misery and upheaval as this event has. As I reflect on September 11th and all that has happened since then I fear that we might someday see another event similar to September 11th but hope that we will never again see another September 11th.
September 11th Ten Years Later: A Personal View
By: Daniel Nardini
This is when I found out about the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and on the Pentagon on that Tuesday morning. I realized that I had a story to write. So I got into my car and headed to work. Regardless of what happened on September 11th, I had to go to work. Every shopping mall had been closed down. Just about every business in many suburban towns had also closed. O’Hare International Airport was completely shut down as was just about all modes of public transportation from trains and buses to school buses. It was eerie not to hear airplanes taking off and landing. This is how it was for a week.
In a way we were all affected by September 11th whether directly or indirectly. The things that happened to us in the decade following September 11th is like being in the eye of a whirlwind. We saw the start of the war in Afghanistan (now America’s longest war), the Iraq War, the Enron Scandal, the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and the beginning of the economic upheaval that would become known as the Great Recession in 2008. Ironically, during this time the U.S. government finally got the architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, this year just shy of the tenth anniversary of September 11th.
There can be no question in my mind that September 11th has led to probably one of the most traumatic decades in U.S. history. Rarely has one event caused so much human misery and upheaval as this event has. As I reflect on September 11th and all that has happened since then I fear that we might someday see another event similar to September 11th but hope that we will never again see another September 11th.