It’s barely 10 a.m. and already I’ve gotten several emails from friends and colleagues about September 11th. Mainly the sentiment is that life goes by so quickly, and many of us are having trouble keeping away from the news coverage.
I remember when the planes struck the first Twin Tower. It was looking like a fluke so the workday looked like it was going to be like any other. Until the second plane hit…
After that no one continued working. At least is seemed that way. No one but the thousands of people at Ground Zero of course. We were all in a collective stupor. And in a less pronounced way many of us are in a similar stupor today.
It’s a perennial work conundrum – when a huge event unfolds, either on a national scale or in our own lives do we go on with the daily work grind? Should we?
Why not just shut down the computers and take the day off? Some day, Sept. 11 might end up a national holiday anyway.
September 13th, 2006 at 10:55 am
we must move on.. it is the american way. in fact new york bounced back relatively quickly . real estate barely took a blip, new york unemplyment rates were lower 3 months later. meaning , the loss of business commerce was more than made up for by reconstruction jobs and new buinesses.many new york city white collar business were opne for business the next day . i know i was.
September 13th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
In thinking about 9/11, it’s impossible to not be consumed by the tragedy, the loss and the senselessness of the event. Five years later, I wonder what we as a nation — or more precisely, a government — have learned. I’m currently reading “Overthrow,” a book chronicaling U.S. intervention in foreign countries and the consequences therein. It chronicals 100-plus years of our nation doing its level best to undermine nacent democracies around the globe in the sake of “national interest,” including, notably, the Middle East. Now I’m not saying the U.S. is to blame for 9/11, but our policies have given the crazies in the world excuses to justify their efforts to murder innocent people. 9/11 wasn’t a case of chickens coming home to roost — it was murder. But I fear that if we don’t consider our actions within the sphere of world events, we will give ammunition for the next al-Qaida down the road.