ABC News Live 9/11

I watched this last night and remembered what it was like for me the morning of September 11, 2001. I didn’t tune in until after the Pentagon had been hit, so I had a lot to catch up on. It was shocking enough to learn that planes had deliberately hit both towers at the WTC, but to watch them collapse one after the other was horrific. But I think what really made me nervous was learning that every single nonmilitary airplane in the whole country was ordered to land as soon as possible. That suggested to me that things were out of control and our government didn’t yet have a handle on what was happening. Then came the news that government officials were being scurried off to secret locations. Air Force One flew around in the air for hours with the president on board as if no where was safe. That day it seemed anything could happen, and it wasn’t until that evening before I could believe that the worst was over.

I was surprised to hear Osama Bin Laden’s name mentioned several times. I guess back then I didn’t have a clear understanding of who he was, so the name simply went over my head, but apparently he was a suspect almost immediately.

BTW, I miss Peter Jennings. Until we got cable when I was 8 or 9 years old, we only had two channels, PBS and ABC, so I got into the habit of watching ABC News. I grew up seeing Peter Jennings regularly, and he became anchor when I was a teenager. I trusted him to tell the truth as he knew it, and thought he was very sharp and perceptive. So many of the people I see on TV news these days seem so dim in comparison.