Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!
While President Obama was delivering his jobs speech to Congress on television this evening, my focus was elsewhere so I wrote the following:
God bless all of you and America on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
The Asbury Park Press/Gannett Newspapers will publish a '9/11 Memories & Recollections' column on Sunday, September 11th, 2011. I'm humbled that a piece I submitted depicting Harry & my ten year journey from 'heart-thumping sadness' @ sea to 'amazing strength' will be included, (I've shared my app contribution below my signature. It means a lot to me for each of you to have it because this is the last time I plan to write about our excruciating 9/11 ferry experience).
I also wanted to share the only photo I've ever come across which successfully captures the less publicized but 'utterly shocking moment(s)' we experienced on the waters surrounding NYC on 9/11. Allow me to explain...
We already knew the United States was under attack, so when our view of the NYC skyline disappeared in the horizon and was replaced - for a time - by clouds of smoke and debris, (exactly as the photo depicts), it led to the agonizing fear that tens of thousands were being killed in the Wall Street area because we knew so many people had not yet made it off the island or out of danger. We had no way of knowing what was going on. Like so many others, we didn't know if the attacks were contained to the WTC area; or if timed explosives were being set off throughout the corridors of Downtown Manhattan; or if approaching passenger planes would be blown out of the sky after the government ordered the air space over NYC 'sanitized.' No one knew what would happen next or how this day would end.
The picture attached above this post - which says 'it all' for many - is from a riveting book called, HERE IS NEW YORK: a democracy of photographs, conceived and organized by Alice Rose George, Gilles Peress, Michael Shulan and Charles Traub, www.hereisnewyork.com, (page 29). I purchased the book at St. Paul's Chapel (211 Broadway, NYC) - the back of 'that' church sits across the street & to the east of the World Trade Center site. It was built in 1766 and miraculously escaped the 9/11 attacks unscathed, (without a crack to a single window). It is the only pre-revolutionary church still standing in Manhattan and it became 'a reverent place' of solace & prayer & reflection for the 9/11 rescue workers.
On the 10th Anniversary, my Harry and I will return to St. Paul's Chapel and once again we will retrace 'our 9/11 voyage' from the Atlantic Highlands in New Jersey to New York City to remember, honor, and celebrate the lives of the 3,000 innocent people who were murdered as we struggled at sea on that fateful day.
We take this incredible journey each year because - as most of you know - our view of 9/11 played out while we were commuting on a ferry. Our SeaStreak Ferry captain navigated with confidence as he passed the eastern tip of Staten Island, with Swinburne & Hoffman Islands to our left and Gravesend Bay to our right. We moved from the lower bay to upper bay by passing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. As we raced through New York Harbor watching destruction and fire bellow from our beloved World Trade Center complex, we stared at our beautiful Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island hoping that she too would be safe in the middle of this water. We literally gasped, then I cried as we passed the foot of Lady Liberty and Ellis Island and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at Battery Park. We navigated to the right in an effort to get into the East River as quickly as possible.
Our SeaStreak captain explained by radio that it was critical to travel 'towards the danger' to save as many lives as possible. He was 100% right. There were terrified people desperate for help on every pier in the East River and there were thousands more running for their lives towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Our SeaStreak crew helped as many people at Pier 11 as our ferry could hold. We escaped through Buttermilk Channel, that short body of water between Governor's Island and Brooklyn's west coast, and made our way back under the Verrazano Bridge heading south to New Jersey.
While we were in the lower bay, the second tower succumbed to the terrors of our society. After it collapsed, God fervently urged me to look away and I listened. As smoke engulfed NYC, (just like the attached photo shows), I literally turned my body completely around and looked only to the east and the south so the power of the magnificent ocean would give my breaking heart strength. HE encouraged me to use the Sandy Hook landscape that was to my left to counter the view that was so painfully seared and freshly etched in my mind. As I worked to catch my breath, I prayed to HIM and it was HE who embraced me and Harry until we could reach the arms of our children - Kate & Scott, ages 12 and 8 at the time.
After the captain left us in the care of hundreds of volunteers in the Atlantic Highlands, he and all the SeaSteak heroes made 40-plus additional trips to bring thousands of additional commuters from the piers in NYC to safety in New Jersey. They did not stop until this job was done. The determination and courage of the SeaStreak Crew will never be forgotten. Harry and I honor them on this 10th Anniversary and always... our thanks to all.
Before I retire my 9/11 voice, allow me to say this: When I was a teenager, my history teacher - the amazing Mr. Oxenford at Pt. Pleasant Beach High School - taught me that I was accountable for researching, learning, facing, remembering and respecting history. Because of him, I left high school knowing that a failure to understand our nation's history and/or participating in collective apathy will always create conditions and opportunities for any 'history' to repeat itself. I've written about my 9/11 voyage and all the heroes who were within my reach to watch for the last ten years to document the history I saw with my own eyes; that chapter comes to a close on Sunday.
With Mr. Oxenford's inspiring lessons in mind, my 10th Anniversary Prayer is that my children and all citizens who follow them will honor the 3,000 precious lives lost on 9/11 by making it their business to understand what happened to our great country that day and why... Over the last ten years, writing about this experience and sharing it with many of you helped me find peace. On the 10th Anniversary, I offer the attached photo as the 'final word' which proves how far we've come in the past decade and how truly resilient our nation is.
My 9/11 pen is at rest and I am grateful. -Amen.
*** See Asbury Park Press submission is below.
Warm regards,
TishTrek
******* The Asbury Park Press, Sunday - September 11th, 2011:
My husband and I were commuting on the SeaStreak Ferry when the first plane hit the North Tower. We gasped in horror at sea when the second plane exploded into the South Tower.
As the towering infernos spewed pieces from their silver shells, we reverently bowed our heads knowing each reflection in the sky symbolized a human life that wouldn’t return home that day.
After picking up 300 people fleeing to safety at Pier 11, we escaped to the lower bay-side of the Verrazano Bridge. All eyes were transfixed on the twin towers as they collapsed into those terrifying mushroom clouds which temporarily erased the Downtown skyline from our view. No one spoke.
Our stunned silence was shattered as a passenger yelled, “The Pentagon has been ‘hit’ too!” Some wept; others prayed; anxiety ruled.
The agonizing view of this heartbreaking enormity of horror was interrupted by selfless volunteers who had lined the Atlantic Highlands to help seafaring commuters who were dazed, frozen and bound together by a silence louder than any voice we had ever heard. It was the voice of "terrorism.”
As remarkable strangers comforted & protected others, the hand of God and the voice of "William Wordsworth" prevailed during this decade of recovery and resolve:
"What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind"
— William Wordsworth, (Intimations of Immortality)
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