An Idaho Radio Host Can’t Forget 9/11

My sister texted me and said she still tears up thinking about that day.  She’s a schoolteacher.  None of her students have any memories from 25 years ago.  They were born almost a full decade later.  It’s up to us to explain to the young what happened on that day.  I’m reminded of a man I met when I was a young man and working in a newsroom.  He had been a stenographer at the Nuremberg Trials that followed the fall of Nazi Germany.  Henry Cumoletti was a quiet man in life, but he toured schools for 50 years to share the story of the evil regime.

There Were People Spared by Fate

A friend of mine worked for Cantor Fitzgerald at New York’s World Trade Center.  On the morning of September 11^th, 2001, he was scheduled to fly out of town on business.  He was in traffic when he first heard the news on his radio.  His life was spared, but dozens of his friends died.  He carries the survivor’s guilt to this day.  A woman I worked with broke down and cried when she learned friends had been killed on that day.  Then she went out and covered the news and did her job.

9/11 Ended Some Friendships

Another woman I knew was a frequent dinner companion, and we were growing close.  Then she told me Osama bin Laden had a point.  We never spoke again.

I’m not sure we ever recovered what we had before.  Months later, my little girl told me she saw “that man they’re looking for”.  She had seen a man in a turban picking up his kids at school.  She was 7 years old, and what she saw on TV appeared that close to home.  I haven’t forgotten, and I’m unapologetic about a belief that we remain in a civilizational war and that my side is worth saving.