The Humanity
Horror is the best word I can think of to describe my reaction to today’s events. I was going to add this as a comment to .sara’s post, but it got a bit lengthy.
One of the many things about this morning’s events that always makes my stomach drop was the fact that they used commercial passenger planes in felling the towers and half of one facet of the Pentagon. I have a nasty habit of placing myself in their position.
You think it’s surreal for us, after the fact? One moment you’re fidgeting in your seat, half-listening to the stewardess go on about water-landings, and the next moment several people jump up with knives and the plane banks hard to the left. What do you do? Try to fight the knife- and boxcutter-wielding hijackers, knowing you’ll probably be dead soon enough anyhow? Sit back, complacent and hoping, in an attempt at self-preservation? Or just sit back, take a deep breath, and say your goodbyes and thank-yous? It's really too frightening for words, and I really don’t know how I’d react in that situation.
Then there’s the hundreds of just-nearly scenarios playing out for good—like the woman who worked at the WTC for 30 years and was just layed off two weeks ago, keeping her out of harm’s way—or for worse—there’s Ted Olsen (U.S. Solicitor General), whose wife was on the plane that struck the Pentagon. “He told CNN that his wife had originally been booked on a flight Monday, but delayed her departure because Tuesday was his birthday and she wanted to be with him in the morning.”
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blind side you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.
Tuesday 09.11.2001 
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