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September 11, 2008
Looking back at 9/11
While there are other things on my mind today, it is hard for me to ignore the fact that today is September 11th and that I used to work for Cantor Fitzgerald Securities and spent June 1993 thru June 1996 working on the 32nd and 104th floors at One World Trade Center.
There were plenty of times when I was at my desk at 8:47 AM and never did we ever expect to have a plane come thru the windows.
I still have a hard time thinking about the people, their families and everyone who went to work on 9/11/01 just like any other regular day in their life, not knowing how everything would change, in some cases forever, afterwards.
Seven years later, I am reminded we need to remember to “Carpe Diem” –“Seize the Day”, while we all can, as often as we can.
Tags: World Trade Center, 9/11, Jeff Pulver
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Posted by jeff on September 11, 2008 08:36 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Very gold profile
Posted by: radyo at October 8, 2008 09:02 AM
It is a strange thing with 9/11. Just counting the number of victims (2,800) you see that it isn't very much comparing with other events when some persons tried to hit innocent people.
Look at WWII: During 1/13 to 1/15 in 1945 the allies killed about 25,000 to 40,000 people in Dresden. The bombing of Hamburg in 1943 resulted in 40,000 to 50,000 dead people. Not to mention Nagasaki with over 90,000 victims and Hiroshima with over 200,000.
But there is a difference: In the war the people were living with the fear of being killed in the next bombing. With 9/11 it was totally different: Nobody had thought about it. So it hit us all unexpected and traumatized a whole nation and a big part of the world as well.
It was a turning point in history. After 9/11 the people where so shocked that they were willing to give up some parts of their liberty for the feeling of some more safety.
And just to think about it I would like to quote Benjamin Franklin: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Posted by: Michael at September 14, 2008 02:55 AM
Jeff:
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I found myself transfixed once again by the hours long replay of news coverage from that faetful day.
Back then I worked in the building just north of WTC7. I slept in the building, awoke that day, to take an early morning flight cross country from Newark Airport to San Diego for CTIA 2001. I landed, checked into the hotel flipped on HBO and at the very end of the show that was on, saw my two roommates from NYC who happened to be the last two people interviewed on the streets of NYC for the show. My head buzzed and told me something was wrong. I flipped the channel just in time to see the second plane hit, live. The wheels from that plane landed at the base of the office building I had just left that morning... I realized I had eaten lunch on the WTC plaza the day before and had remarked to a friend about how much it looked like, well, a graveyard similar to one on the Mound of Olives. A few weeks earlier I videotaped the last full moon before 9/11 which happened to "set" directly between the twin towers from my vantage point on a rooftop in Manhattan. There were many other eerie synchronicities leading up to that day that I won't talk about here and, since then, I've met many other people with similar experiences. I guess the Universe was trying to tell those of us close to the center of all those negative vibes that something was coming, but there was nothing specific enough to warrant any action on our part.
If only...
Posted by: Matt Sapero at September 12, 2008 08:46 AM
I had also worked for one of the companies that had offices at the WTC. I use to hate going to meetings at the WTC because of the prior terroist attack. Though, the 9/11 attack made many people reflect, and change their lives with a "Seize the Day" approach, the attacks made me realize that I had pretty much done everything I had wanted to do in life....I realized I didn't have to go rushing about savoring all the good things of life, but instead live in the beauty of peace by living in the moment....
Posted by: Mimi at September 12, 2008 08:27 AM
Jeff: I know EXACTLY how you feel. I worked on contract for E-Speed on the 103rd floor. I still have my WTC security pass dated Sept 7th, 2001.
Requiescat in pace
Posted by: Miike Norman at September 11, 2008 10:33 AM