Dear Readers:
This Thursday marks the seven-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Like the Kennedy assassination and Challenger explosion, every American can recall where they were on day the twin towers collapsed. I was working at a television market research company. This was a unique environment to be in during the attacks because we had televisions in every room of the company and it was our job to figure out how networks should handle the unique situation. They were trying to figure out what to tell the television reporters: should they stay on-air, should they stop filming? No one knew exactly what to do. It all happened so quickly. Send in your stories about 9/11. Where were you? How did it affect you?
“102 Minutes of Heroism”
On September 11, 2001, at 8:46 a.m., our lives changed. It was a normal Tuesday morning. Children were waiting at the bus stop for the morning school bus, parents were heading to work, buses, planes, and subways were running on schedule. Then two planes struck the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Americans wondered how this could happen in our country. They pulled their families closer and clung to patriotism. But those in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon, and on United flight 93, never had a chance to do this. They were in the center of terror.
102 Minutes is a revealing book by New York Times journalists Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn. They lead the reader on a journey about ordinary men and women in the World Trade Center who saved themselves and others. For example, it tells the harrowing story of a police officer who filed his retirement papers on September 11 and then put his badge back on and went to the buildings. It also tells the stories of women who led an elderly man down 89 flights and another executive who carried a disabled woman from the 68th floor to the main lobby. Other unknown stories include a window washer who was stuck in an elevator on the 50th floor and used a squeegee to escape or a construction manager who pried open doors and freed dozens of people trapped in the north tower. The book details the struggle of the heroic firefighters as well. There is the story of a fire chief who while wearing 50 pounds of gear used his skills as a marathon runner to reach the injured on the 78th floor.
The book will entrance a reader in to believing in chance encounters and fate. Dwyer and Flynn interviewed hundreds of survivors to tell this story of valor. I highly recommend the book because it describes stories the media did not mention. These are the stories of ordinary people surviving in extraordinary circumstances.
In total, 2, 749 people perished in the World Trade Center and 12,000 escaped.
Remember their heroism and valor this Thursday and every day.
For more information on 102 Minutes, go to http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2005_nf_dwyer_flynn.html
