On September 11, 2001, the world literally stood still. Not since the sneak attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 has the world seen the deadliest terrorist attack in world history.
The horror of the day revealed a lot of good, and we shouldn’t let contentious politics prevent us from seeing it now.
On Monday, September 10th, 2001, I was up at 4am getting ready with one of my apprehension teams to get out to Bed Sty in Brooklyn, NY and other locations in the NYC metropolitan area hunting down four high profile FFJ’s (Fugitives from Justice). I had checked the weather the night before and the morning following Hurricane Erin creeping up the coast. Foul weather already coming in with some winds and rain. That plays out well for a Bounty Hunter since fugitives do not like bad weather.
There are many avenues to get into Brooklyn from where I am located and depending upon time of day and thoroughfares, you make your pick. My favorite pick is usually the FDR Drive (Harlem River Drive) straight to the Brooklyn Bridge but it can be hell when you roll the dice and hit the parking lot right after 125th Street. I like the route because I can visit some friends and get some breakfast by 1PP right by the BB. However, I called a friend on the NYPD Highway Patrol and advised me that the FDR was fender bender hell.
For those not acquainted with NYC, the West Side Highway also known as Rt 9 takes you down past 56th Street where 30% of the mid-town commuters get off and then it turns into 12th Avenue where you continue until it turns into 11th Avenue and then West Street to take you into the Financial District. For me, I would weave my way around traffic in Battery Park towards the FDR and across the Brooklyn Bridge there getting to admire the World Trade Center buildings from all sides and milieus of familiar faces from the Administration buildings and courthouses. Besides, I spend mostly every day down in central booking making money.
The weather that day was great for us. It was about 70 degrees that day and overcast with a drizzle. Small talk was about if Hurricane Erin was going to hit us and just breeze by us. Certainly no talk about an eminent terrorist attack. Crossing the bridge that day, I got a call from a friend of mine who worked at the FBI (Gateway) office in Newark, NJ. Manhattan District Attorney’s office and asked for a favor. A favor that would have put me in the building at 7 World Trade Center the very next day.
The C.I.A.’s undercover New York station was in the 47-story building at 7 World Trade Center, one of the smaller office towers destroyed in the aftermath of the collapse of the twin towers that morning. All of the agency’s employees at the site were safely evacuated soon after the hijacked planes hit the twin towers, the officials said.
The intelligence agency’s employees were able to watch from their office windows while the twin towers burned just before they evacuated their own building.
Immediately after the attack, the C.I.A. dispatched a special team to scour the rubble in search of secret documents and intelligence reports that had been stored in the New York station, either on paper or in computers, officials said. It could not be learned whether the agency was successful in retrieving its classified records from the wreckage.
A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment.
The agency’s officers in New York often work undercover, posing as diplomats and business executives, among other things, depending on the nature of their intelligence operations.
That Monday was just like most any other day for my task force. We were methodical, aggressive, tenacious and spirited. Our motto “if you run, we will find you”. We did end up locating and arresting all four fugitives that day and handed off our last one at Kennedy International Airport to a #Bail Bondsmen and an Agent at 8p. After transferring the defendant to the Agents from Georgia, I took my team over to Peter Luger’s Steakhouse in Brooklyn. If you know steak, you know Peter Luger’s.
The next day, I woke up a bit sore due to a scuffle with one of the four fugitives who resisted but it was business as usual. Up at 6a, I opened the blacked out blinds to my bedroom expecting Hurricane Erin to be possibly outside as the news were reporting that possibility for 4 days. However, what I found was a beautiful picturesque sunny, clear bright blue day. I turned on the news and found that the Hurricane was blown just out to sea. Imagine, if the Hurricane had changed its direction and hit NYC, how history would have changed.
At 6:20a, I left to meet my Agents at a pre-arranged meeting location in Brooklyn but I had one stop to make at 7 World Trade Center for a friend. I got there at approximately 7:30a and my visit was for only 10 minutes. I would have spent some more time but my meet time was 8a at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. We were heading into Flatbush first. What happened shortly thereafter changed our world forever.
The world as I said stood still. Gripped in fear and disillusionment, it felt so surreal that reality felt suspended. Your life was literally rocked beneath you. While others were fleeing in fear, as a type of first responder, your natural instincts kick in and you run towards the chaos. That day and the days that followed, thousands of volunteers from across the United States and other countries ran not walked to Ground Zero to do anything, literally anything to help. Nobody was concerned if you were black, white, yellow, purple, Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, etc. You were there for humanity.
Ground Zero was hell on earth. It is the only way to describe it. It was only through the communal support and encouragement of each other that NYC made it through each day, waking up, and putting one foot in front of the other, tirelessly moving rock, debris, forming human chains and loading trucks and then trying to do it again the next day. You worked relentlessly in hopes of finding life despite the horrors of finding body pieces and the remains of the day.
The September 11 attacks killed 2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 others. These immediate deaths included 265 on the four planes, 2,606 in the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area, and 125 at the Pentagon. The attacks of September 11, 2001, were the deadliest terrorist act in world history and the most devastating foreign attack on American soil since the sneak attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
All of those perished were civilians except for 71 law enforcement officers and 343 firefighters who died in the World Trade Center and on the ground in New York City, one law enforcement officer who died when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 55 military personnel who died at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and the 19 terrorists who died on board the four aircraft. Overall, 2,605 U.S. citizens, including 2,135 civilians, died in the attacks but an additional 372 non-U.S. citizens (excluding the 19 perpetrators) also perished, which represented about 12% of the total. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks, including the United Kingdom (67 deaths), the Dominican Republic (47 deaths), and India (41 deaths).
What I do not comprehend is in this statistics do we have to separate who is who by trade or occupation or ethnic origin? Does that make one life more valuable than another? As reported by the media, it does.
Even though that beautiful blue day shattered the world, there was just something uplifting about how people reacted to such horror, simply because, as a nation and nation of nations, we were never more concerned for each other.
We were a country united. We can be that way again.
Millions of Americans all came together in loving kindness for impromptu candlelight vigils coast to coast.
Hundreds of neighbors amassed in their neighborhoods with their doors open and brought food for comfort and opened their hearts to each other and put aside any grievances they had.
The New York Blood Center received 36,000 units of blood donations.
Restaurant owners and retail store owners opened their doors to help the wounded and gave them shelter despite who they were. Strangers gave of themselves to help one another and showed true human compassion.
Cities and towns from across the country gave their very best firefighters and responders to help at ground zero. New York City would give its bravest as over three-hundred New York firefighters gave their lives in an attempt to rescue people in the twin towers, including a friend, who had been trapped above the 102nd floor of the north tower.
We became a nation inspired. Other nations opened their hearts to us and inspired us. The very epitome of the memory of this epic tragedy was from the very moment Brooklyn firefighters George Johnson, Bill Eisengrein, and Dan McWilliams raised the American flag over the rubble at ground zero, we were all galvanized.
There are dozens of heroic stories I could pen here.
There are dozens of heroic stories I could pen here but they all have one common theme. In times of tragedy, history has proven that We, the people can rise from ashes as ONE. We, the people can rise together from other nations to challenge the evil that has befallen mankind and, oppose it and conquer it once and for all.
Why am I reminding you of this event and others 15 years later with these stories of unity and inspiration? Reminding you that we have this instilled in our hearts till this day?
Because 15 years after 9/11, with our current political climate, we have become a divided and uninspired country. We have become the antithesis of hope, unity and the human spirit. We have become vengeful to ourselves, turned our backs to our brothers and sisters, our law enforcement, our military, our friends and yes even our own families. That is how bad this climate has become. Fear and chaos has control simply because now, we live with little faith in ourselves and each other.
Don’t believe it.
Certainly, there is a lot of blame to go around because hatred runs deep. However, it is most misdirected. We need to look at the origin. The origin is leadership. Leadership that has values, morals, ethics and the principles that makes this and other nations great. The ability to open our hearts to each other and not callous attitudes and the massive greed and corruption of the leaders of the free world. Not the oppressiveness of our #government. It is the time to stop arguing, put an end to the war at home and end the war on Terrorism now and not later. However, that time will never arrive because we are weak, weakened by poor leadership and corruption. That is why is so incumbent upon ourselves to take our Country back and remember 911 for what it is and not for what is was. Know thy enemy.
Each and every year, at ground zero on September 11th, it seems that we ‘remember’ and honor the fallen by saying the names of each victim. I say that is wrong. We know who the victims are. If we are to serve their memory well, we need to make September 11th a day that will never repeat itself. To pay respect to all lives lost to terrorism, we need to make this day a united day. We need to invite people of all nations to come together in efforts of peace and let our enemies hear our cries of “NO MORE”. To be like the people after September 11th, who stopped their lives, held hands and helped one another. We need to celebrate life, not death.
On this #anniversary of Sept. 11, for one day to start, we need to recognized that we can become a strong nation again. That we can become united. Without UNITY, we are divided and we will fall. We must send a very strong message to our enemies who taunt us that you will fall. We will divide and conquer you.
For one day on this September 11th, shut down the media, get outside, shake everyone’s hand and say God Bless. Say hello to your neighbor. Introduce yourself to a stranger. Put your hostilities aside and say thank you to a police officer and firefighter. If you are a police officer or another public servant, show them you are also a person too. Thank your military service personnel. Just shake their hands.
For one day America, do not sit on the sideline. Take some action. It’s contagious and it will make your heart feel good. Simply take a small step to connect with your community and be the inspiration that we all desperately crave. It will be a large LEAP towards the UNITY we desperately all need to heal and our enemies to disappear.
I know that this is a most challenging path but we have to get past even the hooligans and the shenanigans our candidates running for office are proffering for our future. It is sad. We must rise above it. Say no to double standards and yes to accountability. Say yes to your constitutional rights and no to corruption and greed. WE, the people and not the politicians run this country and do not forget it.
Come the next day, on Monday, Sept. 12, when the sun rises to a new day with renewed energy and a different outlook with the sun shining on your face, simply smile, feeling that new energy and put one foot in front of the other, and try to do it again. We can, do it again.
About the author: Scott Bernstein is the CEO of Global Security International LLC headquartered in NYC. He has extensive experience as a Counter Terrorist Consultant, International Apprehension Operative, Human & Sex Trafficking Expert and a Military and Law Enforcement Trainer. He is available as a Consultant and as a Speaker. In addition to his LinkedIn profile, you can also interact with Scott on his LinkedIn group http://bit.ly/1LMp2hj.