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As the anniversary of 9/11/01 approaches, many of us will stop and think about what happened, where we were at the exact moment the first plane hit the twin towers, and the profound impact these tragic and cowardly events have had on all of our lives.

It is still surreal. For me, in South Florida, it started out as a routine Tuesday morning. I started the usual 30 minute drive to my office, where I was the Internet Marketer for a large and diversified travel services company. Before I knew it, the news of the first attack hit. Since I am constantly online, I started accessing all of the news sites, but quickly found that sites started going down. There was so much Internet traffic that, what always seemed to be abundant bandwidth, simply disappeared. And the fact that one of the World Trade Center towers had a major communications transmission tower for the New York metropolitan area on the roof caused significant problems once the building collapsed.

Once the second plane hit the other tower, we quickly realized the horrible scenario that was unfolding. A large group of us gathered around in an executive conference room on the second floor and watched in absolute horror as the events unfolded. I remember all of us gasping out loud as the buildings collapsed and we watched it all on live TV. I also recall mentioning to a colleague that it all didn’t seem real, that it was like watching a Hollywood disaster movie. How could this happen? Why did it happen? What’s next?

Well, we found out soon enough, when the Pentagon was hit. Again, a sense of unreality prevailed and a feeling that our lives would never be quite the same again.

The personal impact of this day, of course, was nothing like what happened to people directly affected in downtown Manhattan, Shanksville, PA and Washington, DC. The loss of life, the bravery exhibited by first responders, the tragic impact on families is just impossible to imagine. But, for the first time in my life, I felt truly violated. As an American, I always felt a sense of security that we would not be directly affected by terrorism or terrorist attacks. After all, that was always stuff that would occur “over there,” but never within our own country. 9/11 changed all of that.

The days that followed were scary. Before long, I had another reawakening. The anthrax attacks started, further adding to the sheer feeling of insecurity and personal uncertainty. My fiancée had been a freelance writer at the National Enquirer, and was an occasional visitor to their headquarters office building in Boca Raton, Florida. Then, their photo editor died, shortly after opening an anthrax-laced letter in his office.

My fiancée decided it was prudent to be tested, so she reported to a local health department office here in South Florida. The test showed that she was OK. Overtaken by a sense of foreboding, I thought, “now what?”

The personal economic impact of the terrorist’s cowardly and horrible acts soon became clear. The economy took a big hit and I was laid off from a valued job about one month after the attack. Damn those terrorists. May they burn in hell forevermore or wherever they are.

Another thought. I didn’t want to inject politics into this personal reflection, but feel compelled to note the following. The government was asleep at the switch. It started with the Clinton Administration allowing terrorist attacks overseas to continue unabated, and then the Bush Administration didn’t act proactively, either. There was clear evidence and “chatter” that something was going on. We all know the story by now. I am not a fan of President Bush, by any means, but I have to give him credit for doing what is necessary to prevent a terrorist attack on our soil since that dreadful day. We can only hope that either Senators McCain or Obama, whoever is elected, will be equally effective on this front.

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Source:  Money Remix

Written and Posted by:  Geoff Caplan

http://geoff-caplan.com