I think that everyone can remember where they were / what they were doing when they found out the news that planes had hit the World Trade Center. I was living in Montgomery, AL, in my first year out of college, working as an assistant manager for Victoria’s Secret. I had scheduled myself for the closing shift, so that I could spend the morning getting 4 new tires for my car (m y 1st post-graduation big purchase!). I was sitting in this dinky little waiting room reading Mechanics Digest & Highlights for Kids while they worked on my tires. One of the workers came in & turned on this tiny 13” TV and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. When the first plane hit, it was like “oops, what an accident”. Then we watched in horror as a second plane hit. Then it was like “uh-oh, this is bad”. Thankfully they were almost done with my car, so I paid & left. It was scary & sad, but I didn’t know anyone who lived in NY & I didn’t understand just how much those actions of that day, would change our world forever. At time, Victoria’s Secret was owned by Limited Brands, and since we had stores in the World Trade Center, they went ahead & closed all stores throughout the US. I really wasn’t that worried, until I heard them talking about all of the major cities that could be the next target. One of them was Chicago. I knew my dad was in Chicago on business meeting in those very types of large business buildings. Thankfully, they were all safe, just stranded! (His company ended up sending a van from Montgomery to Chicago to pick them up & drive them back home.) Each hour I watched TV, the more serious it became to me. The fear, the sadness, the questions, the anger, the pride. The events of that day changed our lives forever.
I can remember as a little girl, walking with my dad all the way up to the gate for him to board a plane & we would be waiting there for him to arrive (& we were probably parked curbside). You could pack shampoo as large as you wanted and probably even a kitchen sink. The job I have today is really in existence because of the events of 9/11. Because I work for a prepaid card in which individuals can load, transfer & remove funds, we fall under similar guidelines of a financial institution. A little over a month after 9/11, the USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law. Because of it, I have to make sure that every person that has one of our cards can be identified and is not on an OFAC watchlist. I have to monitor cardholders card activity for large loads or transfers and anything international. Each month, I run all of our cardholders through a database of watchlists to confirm that none of our cardholders are on a list. It is scary to look at the thousands of people on those lists who want to hurt America.
A few months ago I was in NY & DC for business. I was at a dinner party with some lobbyists, many who work in both NY & DC. To hear their stories of what they went through, their families, their friends. They all knew someone who passed away that day. It was fascinating, but so heart-breaking. I had never talked to anyone who was actually in NY, much less actually in the area when it happened. It was very eye-opening.
And I close my rambling post with just how proud I am to be a United States citizen. We might not have made all of the right decisions since 9/11 and I’m sure there are some things we would have done differently, but I’m so proud of the way everyone came together as Americans. It didn’t matter if you were Republican or Democrat, black or white, Baptist or Jewish. If you were an American citizen, we were on the same team. And I hope that we never forget that bond. And I’m so proud and grateful for all of those men & women that leave the comfort of their home, their families & their safeness to go fight to protect this county and to keep us all safe. God bless them and God bless America.
