story3756.xml

story3756.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I am an attorney. I was in my partner's office receiving a rather spirited criticism of a brief I had written. Upon completing that less than rewarding conversation, I returned to my own office. Seconds later, my telephone rang and it was the same partner: "Maggie! Get in here." I thought to myself, "Great. Round two." and went to his office. He is a big man and was standing by his windows which offered a panoramic view of lower Manhattan. He stretched his arms out and bellowed, "Where was I supposed to be today." I told him I had no idea and he pointed out the window. I saw the North Tower on fire, smoke billowing out. Instantly ill at what I'd seen, I turned to him and said, "Well, I guess God really loves you, doesn't he?" My boss responded, "Sort of puts that brief into perspective." I couldn't look at the towers anymore for the moment. I was having difficulty understanding what I cas seeing and returned to my own office again when someone called out, "There's another plane! They hit the other tower." I knew of course, as did so many others, that we were under attack. I immediately tried to reach my daughter, in college in Pennsylvania, and comforted myself knowing she was in a rural area of Pennsylvania and, so, I thought, out of harms way. The phones weren't working properly and I was unable to reach her for the next 2 1/2 hours. I heard then about the Pentagon and wondered how many there were and where they were and whether we could fight them and how we would do that and prepared myself to literally take up arms to defend the city. I called my husband and we determined to meet at an Irish bar on Lexington Avenue in the 50's and decide what to do next. There was no public transportation, but the buildings in midtown had all be evacuated and so, thousands and thousands of New Yorkers were in the street, walking calmly north, helping anyone who needed help and reassuring each other. I met my husband at the bar and noticed a huge television was on. I stood at the bar with an Arab woman who was furious and crying and apologizing. And with her was an Englishman, assuring her she'd done nothing to apologize for. And we discussed as a group where the best place was to go to give blood. And had a beer and assured each other we would stand together. I reached my daughter finally, alive and well and crying and exhalting that I was alive. And then I looked up at the giant TV screen in the bar and saw that the Taliban was having a news conference. I was immediately repulsed by their images and their denials of culpability and realized that, as they denied any involvement in the attacks, no one had asked them if they had been involved. And I spoke into one of those pregnant silences when one of them said they had nothing to do with the attack, "Who the hell asked you if you did it?" and the same realization that had struck me, a veteran of criminal defense work for many years, struck my compatriots in that bar and, as a group, we fingered the guilty parties. Finally, once Grand Central reopened, we made our way home and fell into an exhausted, fitful sleep. I awoke around 6 pm and turned to the brief that had started my day. I rewrote the brief, this time inspired by something inside me that said that the best way to honor those who had been through such hell that day was to work at my very best level and carry on the things that we do every single day that make us a great and loving people and so, at 10:30, tears streaming down my face the whole time, I produced an excellent work product and the last image I saw that day, having turned on the television after finishing my work, was the skeleton of the towers standing in the rubble and I knew then the ennormity of the attack on our country, on our way of life and on the city I cherish for its guts, its heart and its utterly unique strength and I thought of the Lady in the Harbor with that "Don't screw with me" look on her face and knew that we would make it through. We have done that. Ten fold. As a nation, as a state, as a city and each and every one of us, on an individual basis as we got to work every day and continue to build this outstanding tribute to human spirit and democracy that is America. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share that day with history.