Editor's note: The following is a retrospective vignette remembering the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in light of the death of Osama bin Laden.
On the morning of Sept. 11, I was rushing to make the drive to Orlando International Airport from my home in Clermont, Fla., for a flight to Boston. I was working for a Cambridge-based firm and was heading up for a series of regularly scheduled meetings. As I was getting ready, I heard the first report about an airplane hitting one of the towers and assumed it was a small plane, perhaps a Cessna. As I walked past the television I glimpsed images of smoke coming from the building and again thought the news report was centered on a small-airplane incident.
As I entered the Florida Turnpike for the 40-minute drive to the airport, I was startled to hear a news announcement telling me that all flights out of Orlando International Airport were canceled. The story began to unfold about what was happening in New York and other locations. I took the next exit and headed back to Clermont. Upon my arrival home, I tuned to CNN and sat in front of the television, mesmerized by the shocking images that scrolled in front of my eyes.
There was a surreal aspect to that day. Family members who knew I was traveling called me on my cell phone to see if I was all right. I couldn’t tear myself away from the coverage. I remember being angry about the attack and saddened by the grief of so many who had lost loved ones.
Over the course of the next few days, I regained my sense of equilibrium to some degree, but the cloud of the attack and the aftermath continued to hover in my consciousness, coloring everything I both heard and saw.
We had been attacked. This country, this bastion of freedom, this defender of nations, this land considered most powerful had seen innocent blood spilled in an aggressive act of war.
We are shaped by the events that occur in our experience. Sept. 11 excised any shred of innocence that remained in me concerning the world around me. I already knew the world was a dangerous place. I then felt that there were no safe havens, no places of refuge and no safe harbors where evil cannot penetrate.
With the passage of time came a more reasoned outlook. Yes, some of the American innocence had been shattered. However, I soon regained a more optimistic perspective on the world around me. Evil may be prevalent, but it is not in control.
A firm belief in a greater power reminded me that though evil may enjoy a season of prosperity, it will not prevail in the end. As in most times of trial, it was the eternal perspective that soothed my soul.
Several months after Sept. 11, I saw a New York Yankees baseball jersey in a store and purchased it. I was wearing it one day and my daughter looked at me and asked me why a lifelong Dodgers fan who detested the Yankees would bring himself to wear the enemy’s colors.
I looked at her, remembering that fateful day in September, and said, “This season we are all Yankees fans.”
David Fierro is a communications consultant who resides in Salt Lake City. He specializes in transportation and produces the Utah Transportation Report: www.utahtransportationreport.com.