There are certain events in history that are so significant that everyone remembers where they were when they heard the news: Princess Diana's death; the Kennedy assassination; the fall of the Berlin Wall and so on.
Twenty years ago today was one of the most dramatic of them all - the terrorist-hijacked plane attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York.
I was in a meeting out of town when news started to trickle through. The office only had a radio so it wasn't until I had a lift with a colleague who was staying over in a hotel in London, where the lounge had a big screen television showing the news footage, that the full impact hit home. Three thousand civilians lost their lives that day. An act of war. Life could never be the same again...
Overshadowed forever by the remembrance of this horror, today is the birthday of the sublime soprano Catherine Bott, so here she is with something appropriate for the occasion:
Such a sad day. Our sense of safety, shattered. Anxiety rose. Suspicion. Anger. The world has yet to recover. And it never will.
ReplyDelete"Our sense of safety, shattered". It hurt the USA to feel that anyone would dare to do what those purveyors of evil did. We in the UK felt a deep sense of solidarity with Americans at the magnitude of that day's events. We had already lived through three decades of terrorist atrocities courtesy of the IRA. Jx
DeleteIt really did change everything.
ReplyDeleteThe West is still feeling the consequences, two decades on. Jx
DeleteCatherine Bott singing Dido's Lament is a fitting and moving way to remember that horrific day and those that tragically lost their lives.
ReplyDeleteI thought so. Jx
DeleteI'd just got back from the hairdressers, I made a cup of tea, switched on the TV, and bosh. I thought that planes would start hitting cities all over the world. A few weeks later, after my fear subsided, I took up my last position in the City of London - during the first week there was a bomb scare on the tube and I had to be evacuated from the Underground - after that I walked everywhere!
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Unfortunately, we had the "7/7" Tube bombings of 2005 yet to come... It never put me off travelling on London Underground, however. Jx
DeleteI know!! I mean I'd used the tube since 1983 - nearly everyday, but having to be walked through tube trains [not sure if it was track as well, tbh - can't remember properly] was a drama too far - and you know how many dramas there are on the Underground. I was scared witless as it was too soon after 9/11.
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P.S I am talking Circle Line - atrocious bloody nightmare of a line - well, it was back then.
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We rarely use it - "the tourist line", as it used to be called. It's not even a circle these days... Jx
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