The morning of Sept. 11, 2001 will never be remembered in any other context other than 'where were you when?'
But for those of us who remember, the real story is 'what have we been like since?'
For me, to be in a newsroom at the moment seemed like the most natural place to be. I had been at the Moose Jaw Times-Herald for less than a year and was on the court/cops beat. Because we were a morning paper with the good fortune of having a press plant in the same city, our deadline was just after 9 a.m.
That meant I had to be in at about 8:30 a.m. to get the police stuff from the previous 24 hours for that day's paper. It was a part of my routine to watch TV for a bit before going to work. After watching some highlights on sports channels, I'd change the channel to one of the news stations. They all seemed to be showing this image of a fire in one of the Twin Towers in New York.
It wasn't too long after that where I saw a plane fly into one of them. 'Horrible pilot error' was my first thought as I got ready for the rest of the working day.
But it wasn't a typical day and we would soon all know different.
As soon as I got in to work, the mood was sombre, shocked, whatever word you want. The TV in the office (we'd just gotten a few months before that got cable) behind the editor's desk was fixed on CNN.
We used wire services, but rarely on the front page. This was clearly going to need to be an exception. Front page was held until after 10:30 because of the disaster, when we were sure we couldn't hold off any longer and the paper had to get out on the street. That day, we were the only paper with any reference to the crash out on the stands.
Our minds all raced – how can we make this local? Did we know people in the area? Former NHL star Clark Gillies worked in the banking industry in New York and was from Moose Jaw (still has family there). By the next day, we'd gotten him. We'd gotten someone else who was working near the Pentagon that day when a plane hit there. Slowly, we'd pieced together some local connections and reflections for the next day's paper.
But the effects of the day lasted long on anyone who can remember. That night, one of the few sporting events in the world that was continuing was a pre-season game between the Moose Jaw Warriors and Prince Albert Raiders. I watched the game, hoping to get some sense of separation from the events of the world, but it was all friends and I could talk about. Was there a fifth plane in the air? What was next? Who was at fault?
It was right about that night when the sorrow and shock was still on our minds that I'd started hearing radical conspiracy theories. Somehow the most bogus ideas had gotten credibility because no one knew exactly who did this or how far it went.
And when I think back about that day, the worst part other than the deaths of innocent people in planes and buildings was the loss of our ability to reason through our problems. The hysteria surrounding many political discussions has its base in that day. While bigotedness didn't have a starting point on that day, it flew through the roof from that day on and really hasn't looked back since. Extreme media outlets now prey on this fear that has ripped through North America, feeding a culture looking to get offended and getting paid well for it.
I remember the world before, and how nice we all were to each other – even through political discussions – in the immediate aftermath. What wouldn't we give to have that back? Â
