I know, I have only been here just over a month, but in that month nearly everyone I have met and talked to was personally impacted by the terrorist attacks. I've heard stories of family and friends lost, fear, and terror they went through... as well as illnesses some of my co-workers suffered from being at ground zero following the attacks.
As they have told these stories, I have seen the fear and pain return to their eyes as they relive that day, I have heard their usually strong and powerful voices waiver as they recount what they went through. Here, 10 years may as well have not passed, it is still as vivid today as the day it happened.
So, as I listen this morning to the list of names of those lost read at the memorial ceremony, the tears have been in a constant stream.
I have not been to Ground Zero. I had been planning to, but a run of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, etc have kept me from getting there, but I have been touched by a piece of it.
On Friday I was at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice where they were preparing to set up their own memorial.
The college lost 68 of their own, many alums who were first responders. Their tribute is a piece steel from the rubble of the tower, to serve as a permanent reminder.
I can't even begin to tell you how small one feels when standing next to this piece of steel. While it is so small in the grand scheme of the wreckage of the attacks. What it represents is just so massive.
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