20 Years Ago...
I can’t believe it was 20 years ago.
20 years ago, I was a senior in college in southern New
Jersey.
20 years ago, I was also a volunteer firefighter/EMT in my
northern NJ hometown.
20 years ago, I woke up to go to class; it was a beautiful
sunny day.
20 years ago, my girlfriend (now wife) called me from
Atlanta and told me to turn on the TV. She was understandably worried as her
brother was living and working in NYC. She couldn’t get in touch with him
because phones weren’t working (he ended up being ok).
20 years ago, there was widespread fear and panic; many
families were very worried, some received horrible news.
In the following days, we saw something amazing happen:
People came together like nothing I had ever seen before (or have since, other
than perhaps during the early weeks of the pandemic). Residents of my hometown
donated items to help the WTC workers, and within days a tractor-trailer was
full.
I was a firefighter/EMT at the time, and on September 15th I
went with my fire company to NYC to deliver the donated items to a couple of
locations in the city (in Harlem and Manhattan, but I was not at not Ground
Zero). As we entered the city, we could see the smoke/dust still rising over
Manhattan. A bunch of typically loud firefighters became completely silent. I
usually take photos of everything, but couldn’t bring myself to take a picture
of it (although it’s still burned into my brain). The drive to NYC was full of
American flags and hand-written signs promoting hope and unity hanging from
every bridge. People were amazingly nice to each other. I recall a large
shirtless gentleman riding his bike down the middle of the street--with a huge
pet snake hanging around his neck--as he cheered for our group of emergency
vehicles driving by (and we were only making deliveries and doing off-site
grunt work moving stuff around...and later getting my foot run over by a police
vehicle, thank you steel-toed boots).
20 years ago was a sad and crazy time. Over the following
weeks, several of my co-workers in EMS (LVFAS & GEMS) and the fire service
ended up being sent to help out in NYC and at Ground Zero. I can’t even imagine
what they, and folks who lived in the city, saw and felt in the days/weeks
after 9/11. I hope you are all doing okay on this difficult day; if not, please
reach out. As I talked with my 9 year-old daughter yesterday about 9/11, I
became unexpectedly teary-eyed—and I wasn’t even at Ground Zero. Again, to the
folks who were there, know that there is always an open ear.
9/11 sparked my interest in disaster preparedness and
response. Since that time, I have become an emergency medicine physician and I
also work/volunteer in disaster medicine and emergency management, and have recently
taken on a state role in public health. In 2001, I could never have imagined
that 20 years later I would be working as a physician in emergency/disaster
medicine, during a global pandemic that has killed 654,409 Americans, while
being worried about my kids at school, and witnessing the division and anger in
our society. Never forget 9/11. Also never forget the hope and unity after
9/11—if only we could get some of that back in our society.
On 9/11/01, 343 firefighters, 60 police officers, and 8
medics ran toward the WTC and never returned. 20 years later, please honor them
by caring for other people and promoting unity. Please. And Never Forget.
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