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Thread. #911 Two events are defining moments in my life. When JFK was assassinated. When the planes hit the twin towers. I used to see the World Trade Center from my balcony. I rode the elevator to the top w/a friend who worked there, to help conquer my fear of heights.
The sky was blue, the sun was shining. I was meeting my neighbor in our building’s garage- he was giving me his parking space. He said a plane went into the World Trade Center. I didn’t understand what he meant, until I looked up, on my way out of the garage. I saw it. A plane.
Sticking out of the tower, flames. It is not possible to explain how I could not compute what my eyes were witnessing. I drove to school. It was the first day of class for my freshmen. But instead, we were watching tv in the dean’s office. People were panicking. Classes cancelled
I held crying kids in my office all day. Their parents wanted them to come home from college. Everyone was calling me to see if I was ok. Then the phones stopped working. All planes stopped flying. I walked home through the smoke and tears. My neighborhood was in waste. 
I had to show ID to cross police lines. The power was off. Walking up 18 flights of stairs to see if my cat was ok, I was in shock. The firemen, the first responders ran to the rubble. The firehouse down the block from me went immediately. They knew the towers were coming down.
But, because they are New York’s bravest, they still went up to save people. Everywhere was sad, the firehouses, the fences, the walls. People were looking for their loved ones.
I could not stay in my apartment, I had left the windows open on that fine September morning, the first day of school. When I returned, there was ash everywhere. Terrorist ash mixed with victim ash. I walked to Greenwich Village to stay with friends. We cried. I made dinner.
Anything to try for some normalcy. New Yorkers do what we do. We were kind to each other. We felt supported by each other and everyone around the world sending us love. We rebuilt. It took years to memorialize Ground Zero. Now it is a tourist attraction.
In subsequent years, I taught kids whose parents had died in the towers that day. For me, 9/11 is about the worst of humanity, people who could fly planes to kill us. It’s about the resilience of humanity, people who gather themselves up and go on living, constructing new life.
We honor people killed on 9/11 in multiple locations. We honor the first responders. We honor the human spirit that overcomes unthinkable tragedies. This is what gives me hope that we can survive the current dark age we find ourselves in. We endure. We prevail. #NeverForget
Watch Live: Sept. 11th memorial events nbcnews.com/video/watch-li…
Nearly 20,000 children attended school below Houston Street on September 11, 2001, and were exposed to the toxic mixture. We do not know what World Trade Center diseases these now-young adults will develop," Moline said in her testimony. abcn.ws/2NYOdTd
Mourners use reading of 9/11 victims' names to criticize Rep. Omar and decry gun violence nbcnews.com/news/us-news/m…
Why is this taking so long??nypost.com/2019/09/10/9-1…
The grief never goes away. cbsnews.com/news/gold-star…
