9-11

[Note: The following was written 4 years ago - from a simple man's perspective. It is re-posted here to commemorate those victims who lost their lives in the tragic event.]

It is 9-11 again. Few in Taiwan had experienced what people on the US East Coast had gone through on September 11, 2001. I'll share mine:

It started out as a routinely busy day. We were in the middle of examining patients when one of our techs came into my room and told us that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. We all thought that it might have been a terrible accident until things rapidly unfolded. As soon as we had realized that America was under attack, the 50-year-old clinic policy of "never close down the office unless there is a war" finally came into effect. In our practice, many patients came from out-of-town and overseas. And all of a sudden, they could not go home any more because Logan Airport was shut down [it turned out later Logan was where two of the hijacked flights originated]. Our staff made arrangements for the patients to stay at a Holiday Inn nearby. It was a controlled chaos and everybody was worried. Dr U, one of our research fellows, absolutely could not comprehend what was transpiring. She was terrified that she'd be stranded in Boston, never to go back home to Japan again.

I called Dr L in my other office outside of Boston and told him to close down and go home. Then I got into my car to drive home myself. There were very few pedestrians on Cambridge Street by this time (around noon). When I got on I-93 North, I was amazed that the normally congested highway was now totally empty.

It finally sank in: "This is war!!"

For the rest of the day, we stayed in and glued to the TV set. I was thinking that my generation had gone though the last stage of WW-II, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War, and the entire Cold War. Now this. And occasionally a fighter jet would fly overhead. Its high-pitch streaking sounds were very different from that of the commercial jets. It was quite disconcerting.

In the ensuing days, we found out a friend lost her brother when the towers collapsed. Another friend's daughter broke down and cried uncontrollably upon hearing the news - she used to work there and many of her friends were now gone.

We still feel the effects of 9-11 even today. For one thing, our overseas patient flow slowed to a trickle. And sometimes we have to arrange for them to see other doctors outside of the US. Travel, by air, is no longer a simple matter.

TV is showing the memorial ceremony at Ground Zero now. The victims will never know why they were targeted.

I hope we don't go through this ever again.