Facie’s Ramblings

On Monday, I wrote about how I was going to try to limit my 9/11 exposure. In case it was not clear, my intent was not to diminish the day or pretend it did not happen. I can guarantee I will never forget. Rather, I was concerned that perhaps I spend too much time rehashing the events and crying about them. Is it really healthy to re-watch a plane crashing into the WTC for what is probably the 100th time for me? But, as I suspected, I did watch more TV than I wanted. Here is how the 24-ish hours unfolded for me. Not that most of you (or probably any) care, but here goes. Monday night, I watched snippets of a few programs on the H2 and either the History or the Smithsonian channel. One program, which centered on people who escaped, I had seen before. The other, which I cannot remember, might have been new to me. I was so tired from staying up for the Steelers game the night before, that I was asleep by 9:30, so my about one hour of 9/11 rehashing seemed pretty respectable. Before ...

I spent the past two hours watching CNN and Fox News, preceded by a moment of prayer at church. I hope most of us take some time today to think about what happened eight years ago and how it changed our lives. I was so shaken by those events when they happened. For weeks, I spent hours a day watching CNN and Fox, constantly checking those same sites on the web, waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. I remember the Saturday or Sunday after, when planes were again allowed to fly. I was doing sit-ups at the gym and saw a plane fly overhead. I stopped cold. For months, I found myself watching planes, almost waiting for them to fly into buildings. I just reread my post from last year and, not surprisingly, I said some of these same things. They just stick with you. I continue to try to watch programs about 9/11. There was just one last week. I especially appreciate hearing about people who were directly affected, those who still mourn the loss of their loved ones. Watching video fro...

Some people would rather just forget the tragedy of 9/11 ever happened seven years ago. But I don't think we should. After it first happened, I was not sure I would ever be the same, even though I did not know anyone who had perished or had been injured. I did know several people who lived or worked in NYC as well as near the Pentagon, and Flight 93 crashed about a mile from a house on Indian Lake my family had back when I was in high school and college. In fact, I might have actually walked near or by the crash site (before it became the crash site). So in that respect, I felt connected. When I heard about the first plane crash, I was listening to B94 and getting ready for work, and I did not think much of it. But when I got in my car probably 10 or 15 minutes later and heard about the second crash, and then I heard Howard Stern talk about a terrorist attack, I was dumbfounded. At work, Luke, our IT kid, was holding a TV antenna so we could watch the events on TV in the admin co...