September 11

     My mother is 92 years old, she is a part of, what Tom Brokaw calls "the Greatest Generation".  My mother sometimes has trouble remembering things, but what she still recalls to this day is where she was when she heard the news of Pearl Harbor. On September 11, 2001 I was at work at the Post Office. We had just finished our weekly safety talk and were headed into the break room. On all the TV's the images of the World Trade Center shone and the reporters were telling of an airplane that had hit the midtown Manhattan tower. Then we saw in horror the second plane hit. We all knew at this instant that this was no accident. As my co workers and I looked on, the reports that the planes were hijacked prior to the crashes confirm our thoughts that we are under attack. Around twenty minutes to ten a report tells of a fire at the Pentagon. At 9:59 am the south tower of the world trade center collapses. Thirty minutes later, the north tower crashes too. The supervisors at the Post Office repeatedly told us to go back to work but we payed them no heed and continued to watch the televisions, when they were able to get us out of the break room and back to our work areas we never started our machines we all tried to find news on the radio and gathered in small groups. The information we gathered was all over the map. No one knew exactly what was going on and the news stations would give one story and then a few minutes later change the story. Then the fire alarm rang, we evacuated the building. Someone had called in a bomb scare to the Post Office. After an hour in the parking lot, they sent us home.
The difference between my mother's generation and mine is that, they had to wait hours to hear the radio reports of the attack while we watched it as it happened. I don't remember hearing the news of the Kennedy assassination, I do remember watching the funeral on TV. I will never forget September 11.

     As the days passed and the horrible images continued to be shown on TV, my thoughts were , thank God I didn't know anyone in the towers. Yes, this happened to Americans, yes they were only 150 miles away, but it wasn't hitting home........yet. My mother and father didn't know anyone at Pearl Harbor but the coming years hit home for them. Many of their classmates from high school died in the war. Two of my mother's brothers served in the Pacific, my parents made the sacrifices at home to support the war. A week after the attacks on September 11, Martin Kelly, then the New York State AOH President, sent out an e-mail letting his friends know that he was alright. I had forgotten that he worked in the towers. What I didn't know was that his daughter and son-in-law did also. All three escaped before the collapse. When the names of the Fire Fighters and Police Officers that died in the attack was released, I found out that 18 of my Hibernian brothers were on that list. This was becoming a ripple effect. When you think that it didn't effect you personally, all of a sudden you find out it did. The video I chose for this post is my friend Mike Roche singing "When New York was Irish". Mike is not a professional musician, he is a good Irishman that will step up and sing a song or two when asked, and he does a fine job on this old tune. At the end of the song, Mike lifts his glass and says, as he always does with this song, "to Father Mike". Ten years after the attack and every time Mike sings that song, it's in honor of the memory of his good friend Father Mike Judge, FDNY Chaplin, who gave his life that day. The ripple effect. Even if you still think that the attacks didn't effect you, stand back and take a look around you, see the people you know who knew someone that died that day, take a look around you and see the people you know who have someone fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan as a result of 9/11.  We were all affected and we will never forget. 343, 23, 37.