Take A Step Back

So I was going to post about the fantasy football draft we had tonight sponsored by Joe Bechard from the WAC... but right after the Packer game was over, I started flipping through the channels.

I came across a show on A&E called something like "The Last 102 Min. The Story behind the final 102 min of the World Trade Center"

I don't know if I'm the only person that this happens to, but I found myself frozen in the chair, staring intently at the tv. This happens everytime something about 9/11 comes on. I can't explain it, but I feel like I have to sit and watch whatever it is, and find myself staring at the tv, just like back on that day.

I'm not sure why this is. I can remember the day in every little minute detail. From hearing about it on the radio at 8am in the car on the way home, to walking into the house with the then GF and seeing my mom crying. Everything, the whole day. But I wasn't anywhere near NY, the Pentagon, or Pennsylvania. I've never been to NY. I didn't know anybody in NY. I didn't know of anybody that died in 9/11. Heck, I don't think I even know anybody that KNEW anybody that died that day. It's been 4 years almost to the day. Am I the only one?

I will watch and try to learn from programs that talk about the Oklahoma City bombing, or the Challenger explosion - but it's not the same. I remember where I was when the Challenger exploded. I remember watching Tienamein (sp?) Square. I watched the Columbine coverage for countless hours on tv. So why any informative program on 9/11 makes me not want to change the channel?

They spent much of the second half of the show speaking with survivors, and a lot of Fire/Police survivors. Several of the people survived after walking down 80-90 flights of stairs. They recounted how the building sounded as it collapsed right behind them. There was a police battalion chief that had 4 other men, and two civilian women in a stairwell with them AS the building collapsed. They guestimated they were on the 8th floor when the building came down on them. They survived by being "trapped" in a pocket the stairwell created, and were rescued almost 8hours later. The policeman radioed out for help, and an hour later when someone responded, he said they were where the "B" stairwell in the North Tower was. The response over the radio was, "Where's the North Tower?". It took eight seconds for the building to come down, and for eight hours, this policeman thought he was trapped in his 'coffin'.

These are not pleasant thoughts. Even less pleasant knowing it really happened, and wasn't part of some movie plot. But how come no matter how many stories I hear, or footage of the buildings coming down I see, I still feel like I have to watch?

I don't ever want to forget, and maybe I'm supposed to feel like this. I can only hope that other people feel the same way, and that they won't forget either.