9/11.
I decided to fly today, LA to NYC. A day I will never forget. I'm traveling w/ a friend who has never been to the USA, & spent the morning explaining why this day is so heavy for our country 25 years later.
343 New York firefighters walked into two burning buildings & climbed the stairs while many were rushing down. They knew what they were walking into & they went anyway.
On Flight 93 the passengers learned by phone what had happened to the other planes. Everyday people did the impossible, stormed the cockpit & forced the plane into an empty field in Pennsylvania instead of the US Capitol. Todd Beamer was heard saying "Let's roll" before they charged. Everyone on board died.
Most people outside the US never heard this one: w/ the bridges & tunnels shut, roughly 150 boats turned toward the burning skyline & carried close to 500,000 people off Manhattan in under 9 hours. Bigger than Dunkirk, & they did it bc that's what we do in a crisis.
Welles Crowther, a 24 year old equities trader, was already safe. He tied a red bandana over his face, went back into the smoke of the South Tower 3 times & carried injured strangers out. At least a dozen people are alive bc of him. He died when the tower came down.
5 months later I raced my first Olympics in Salt Lake City w/ a red bandana tied around my head. I did not carry anyone out nor was I in that horror... His was tied over his mouth so he could breathe long enough to go back in one more time, mine to keep the sweat out of my eyes. Same color, about as different a reason as it gets, & all these years later I still feel eerily connected to someone I never met. I was 19 & we felt that representing the US was so much bigger than us.
At the opening ceremony that February, 8 athletes carried in a flag pulled from the rubble at Ground Zero, too fragile to raise. So they just held it, all of them together, while the choir sang the anthem, & the stadium went silent in a way I have never heard before. We raced, represented, & wore that flag as proud & stood as tall as we could. This was OUR Games.
I wrote last year that time erodes memory. What I wanted my friend to understand today was less the loss than the proof. Firefighters, a trader, 40 passengers & crew, 800 mariners, 8 athletes holding a torn piece of cloth, the countless who were a part of this time....None of them were thought of as particularly special before, & they decided, right there in that very instant - that strangers were worth it.
That selflessness was something to fight for - to help, no matter the ultimate sacrifice. Unbelievable strength, unity, & Bravery. A true reminder of what we are capable of when all seems lost.
The question I sit with every year is whether that version of us is still in there. I hope and think it is.
To the ones we lost, & the ones who ran toward it - we remember, forever. May we keep teaching the next generation what we do when there is no light at the end of the tunnel - we never give up, we grab that bandana, we reach out that hand.
In memory - Forever. 9/11 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I decided to fly today, LA to NYC. A day I will never forget. I'm traveling w/ a friend who has never been to the USA, & spent the morning explaining why this day is so heavy for our country 25 years later.
343 New York firefighters walked into two burning buildings & climbed the stairs while many were rushing down. They knew what they were walking into & they went anyway.
On Flight 93 the passengers learned by phone what had happened to the other planes. Everyday people did the impossible, stormed the cockpit & forced the plane into an empty field in Pennsylvania instead of the US Capitol. Todd Beamer was heard saying "Let's roll" before they charged. Everyone on board died.
Most people outside the US never heard this one: w/ the bridges & tunnels shut, roughly 150 boats turned toward the burning skyline & carried close to 500,000 people off Manhattan in under 9 hours. Bigger than Dunkirk, & they did it bc that's what we do in a crisis.
Welles Crowther, a 24 year old equities trader, was already safe. He tied a red bandana over his face, went back into the smoke of the South Tower 3 times & carried injured strangers out. At least a dozen people are alive bc of him. He died when the tower came down.
5 months later I raced my first Olympics in Salt Lake City w/ a red bandana tied around my head. I did not carry anyone out nor was I in that horror... His was tied over his mouth so he could breathe long enough to go back in one more time, mine to keep the sweat out of my eyes. Same color, about as different a reason as it gets, & all these years later I still feel eerily connected to someone I never met. I was 19 & we felt that representing the US was so much bigger than us.
At the opening ceremony that February, 8 athletes carried in a flag pulled from the rubble at Ground Zero, too fragile to raise. So they just held it, all of them together, while the choir sang the anthem, & the stadium went silent in a way I have never heard before. We raced, represented, & wore that flag as proud & stood as tall as we could. This was OUR Games.
I wrote last year that time erodes memory. What I wanted my friend to understand today was less the loss than the proof. Firefighters, a trader, 40 passengers & crew, 800 mariners, 8 athletes holding a torn piece of cloth, the countless who were a part of this time....None of them were thought of as particularly special before, & they decided, right there in that very instant - that strangers were worth it.
That selflessness was something to fight for - to help, no matter the ultimate sacrifice. Unbelievable strength, unity, & Bravery. A true reminder of what we are capable of when all seems lost.
The question I sit with every year is whether that version of us is still in there. I hope and think it is.
To the ones we lost, & the ones who ran toward it - we remember, forever. May we keep teaching the next generation what we do when there is no light at the end of the tunnel - we never give up, we grab that bandana, we reach out that hand.
In memory - Forever. 9/11 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
