911 : LEST WE FORGET

I am not an American but I feel for the country and for her people, both have not quite recovered from that fateful day 9 years ago. I say this not as a pedestrian, I was in NYC on 911 in 2001, and it changed me.

I was at a partners meeting with RRA that morning. I watched the second plane hit the Towers from our mid town office at the MetLife Building. I was scared to bits when we evacuated on to Park Avenue. I found out how nerve wrecking it must be in an air raid as I was running on the street while planes (USAF) were low flying over the city. I was stranded in the Benjamin on Lexington Avenue for 5 days. I was glued to the TV 24-7 in total disbelief as the horrors unfolded. I was in tears at the Armory downtown, where a Search Coordination Centre was set up. I still have this image of a bowling team in their uniform passing out pictures of a teammate, a fireman MIA. I was lucky to get on the first CX flight home. I could not control my emotions everytime I thought of that week. I cried every time I recounted my terrifying experience, months afterwards, for more than a year.

Al Queda may continue to wave the Jihad flag but what exactlly have they achieved, aside from intensified hatred and increasing intolerance as events of the past few days in NYC - over the mosque next to Ground Zero - will attest. Why would a religion promote extremism and violence? Where will this take us? How will it end? Will this ever end? These open questions on 911 are not philosophical arguments anymore, they are real, and they affect the daily lives of everyone around the globe.

911 may be a small incident compared to the evil of the Holocaust but nonetheless it must be kept alive, front and centre .....

LEST WE FORGET!