jeremy borger [blog]

Two years ago this morning, I was in bed when my w…

Two years ago this morning, I was in bed when my wife came in and told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I thought that was kind of odd and remember kind of discussing with myself in my head whether or not the story would be big enough to be a package at the news station I work at, or just a shorter mention. After all, it was in New York City, not Cleveland, so it wasn’t local. Still, the World Trade Center is well known…

A couple minutes later as I was falling back to sleep, my frantic wife told me another plane hit the other tower. Grogily getting out of bed, I still wasn’t sure what it could be. Were planes trying to go to a nearby airport somehow being misdirected?

But after watching the news for just a few minutes, it became clear it was deliberate. And these weren’t small planes as had been thought when it first happened. That was one of the theories in the beginning - that a small plane had gotten lost or something. Or a wrong turn. Made a mistake. Katie Couric and Matt Lauer watching from via TV monitors from a camera fairly far from the towers didn’t understand how big of a deal it was as those who were on the ground, much closer. An NBC producer called up who had witnessed it and they put her on air. She was understandably upset and Katie was trying to calm her down. The producer said it was a large, commercial 747 and Katie, not wanting unconfirmed reports to go out over the air, was saying things like, “Oh, that can’t be right,” but the producer was sure. “NO!” she said. “It was a commercial airliner.”

The reports just kept coming in. Then the shots from the ground. They were live on the phone with someone at the Pentagon when a plane hit there. Seeing those towers fall on live TV. A fourth plane was hijacked in Cleveland airspace. The reports on the number of planes hijacked was as high as 12 at one point, I think. Cleveland was evacuated and I was driving downtown at about noon because I figured they’d need extra help at work. People were leaving and it was like rush hour out of the city.

We haven’t had a major terrorist attack on our soil since then. You can never be 100 percent safe. You’ll think you are but then get hit in some bizarre way you never thought of. I think we’re safer, though. Safer than we were the day before the attacks. And we’re working to stop those that would harm us back in their homeland, before they reach our airports with the bombs strapped to their bodies or whatever. The best defense is cutting these people off early. Destroying them from the inside. And I think that’s what we’re doing.

But I remember that day and over the next few days, the little problems in life seemed to fade away. People focused on things that were important, not the trivial things. People went to church. Prayed. Many times in life, we don’t turn to God until things are going bad. It was like the whole country was going through that. Sometimes I wish every day could be like that. That visiting a friend or family member was higher on the to-do list than seeing the latest action movie. That we’d realize we are moral and we are going to have to face God one day and maybe we should start looking to Him before that day. That all these material possessions that we’ve worked so hard to get really aren’t that important.

But sometimes it seems that part of the “healing process” is turning away from that. Life goes on and things turn back to the way they were before the giant wake-up call. Until another wake-up call happens or the time for wake-up calls and second chances runs out.

So maybe anniversaries like this can help us remember that life is short, there’s something bigger out there and there’s better things we could be doing with our time. Maybe.

Never forget.