Looking back

Where were you when the planes hit?

Like it or not, that will be the question we ask strangers and long-lost friends at some point in the future. It's the question that will travel with his generation, similar to those alive when the bombs hit Pearl Harbor.

I was in Cameron, Missouri, working as the sports writer for a weekly paper. It was a plush job, covering one high school in a town of about 10,000, 45 minutes north of Kansas City.

I kept college-student hours, working late into the night at times and 'partying' the rest. I was dilligent with my work, but I was asleep while others at my office building were at work when I got the phone call.

I really can't remember who, but I would have to guess it was my sister, who told me to turn the television on. When I did, I was likely like the rest of you, staring in awe as the first tower went down.

I raced to the office (It was a deadline day, but like I said, I worked nights) and noticed on the television in the break room when the second tower was hit. I soon was able to contact my mom, who was living in New York City at the time and remarked how the ash from the downtown district had made its way to Brooklyn and Queens, where she worked, but she was OK.

I thought about all the rest of the friends and family I have and had in the region and I wrote this column. It was edited afterwards and even that version didn't reach many eyes, so I will use this forum to publish it again.

Feel free to comment as you wish, but this was the way I felt at the moment. Would I write the same thing now, that is hard to say...

I was going to talk about the defending NFC champions. I was going to discuss the tradition of my favorite football franchise. How the mantle of the quarterback position has been passed down from Frank Gifford and Y.A. Title to Phil Simms to Kerry Collins. I was going to write about how this year’s defense reminds me of 1986 and the terror and chaos created by Jim Burt, Harry Carson, George Martin and LT. But there are other chaotic things going on in New York, and I don’t mean the subway system…

I have my opinion and I’m entitled to it, but something tells me I’m going to hear about this one.

I can’t listen to the reports of ‘terrorist activity’ on the Eastern seaboard and not feel a rush of confusing adrenaline. I can’t watch footage of planes crashing into building and not gaze in wonderment as people around me emit emotions of sadness and concern. Call it a defense reaction from a scarred boy or a natural reaction from a deranged lunatic, but I can’t hide my feelings.

Yes, I understand that people are dead. I heard that people jumped from the higher floors of the World Trade Center soon after the explosion to avoid the fire and brimstone that awaited them in their office. I’m sure the injuries suffered by the curious onlookers when the buildings collapsed were much higher than they should be because you can’t stop New Yorkers from rubbernecking.

I have family and friends that live and work in New York. I have friends in Washington D.C., although I’m sure they weren’t anywhere near the Pentagon or the White House when explosions caused those buildings to be evacuated.

But I know people everywhere and everywhere, people are dying. Maybe that’s why I can’t get too upset with all this chaos. CNN may spend the next two weeks discussing every possible angle about this day, but they certainly didn’t spend two seconds talking about all the children in Africa that died yesterday from diseases treatable with modern medicine. They spent little time recounting the story of the hundreds of people that are dead today because of drug overdoses. MSNBC has yet to do an hour long special on the inner city youths that were shot yesterday in New York, Detroit, D.C., Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston and Chicago.

I recognize the dark humor by whoever decided to do this (and there is one person who spearheaded this entire plan, regardless what the news or government says), picking September 11, or 911. I’m curious as to why President Bush was in Florida and not at home. I wonder why they didn’t try to bomb the Sears Tower or the San Andres Fault. Nevertheless, the fact that they shut down the entire airline industry in less than four hours shows me they knew exactly what they were doing. The question that will be tossed around every water cooler in America is why?

But just because it’s on television doesn’t mean that’s the only thing to worry and talk about. This country has a lot of problems and the events of Tuesday are just one of them. But finding out who did this isn’t going to get the millions of Americans off welfare and put their kids through school. The culprit isn’t going to confess to the crimes and explain how to end homelessness. It’s just another problem for this dying republic to deal with. Except this problem gets national media coverage while the rest gets pushed to the back burner and that’s the truth.