Lowell Deeds

It’s hard to believe that the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred seven years ago today. It was a beautiful, sunny, late summer day, just like today. Using some notes that I scribbled down the next day, here’s what I remember. At about 9:00 a.m., someone told me that a plane had flew into the World Trade Center. My initial reaction was that it had to be an accident. I quickly got to a TV and actually saw the second plane strike the second tower, live on TV. Although the second plane caused me to dispense with the accident theory, I still assumed that it was a small, private plane such as a Lear jet. In what I can only describe as a failure of imagination, I was unable to consider the possibility that several commercial airliners had been hijacked and turned into flying bombs. That same failure of imagination occurred when the towers collapsed. Even though I saw it live on TV with the reporter saying what had just happened, I could not comprehend that the towers had actually collapsed – it must have just been the façade that fell. Soon enough I and everyone else realized the extent of the destruction although internet service was completely disrupted so it was hard to get much information. Shortly after noon, the governor (Swift?) ordered all state buildings closed so we all went home and spent the rest of the day watching CNN.