I was at a refinery just south of the Twin Cities when this happened. The engineering contingent I was part of went into a lockdown mode in a positive pressurized area of the building, then sent home. I was staying at an Extended Stay America since I had just started the job up there. We went back to work the following day, to find National Guard HMMVV’s with machine guns at the gate. The refinery was considered the #4 potential target in Minnesota, the first two being the nuclear power plants, the third the Marathon refinery across the river, and Mall of America being #5.
Then something made me sick. Lefties in Minneapolis were cheering the collapse of the World Trade Center.
I guess my memories are glazed over by a longing for the better parts of ourselves that we saw then. The firemen, the police, Giuliani taking charge, even Bush with his megaphone moment...There was a coming together and a pouring out of the American Spirit that we are starved for now.
Truth be told, that day, I had to drive a co-worker to her car, which was in a parking garage south of our work place (in Jersey City, NJ). We had to drive through a largely Muslim section and the streets that day were in hyper-panic mode, with cars running traffic light, cutting each other off trying to get out of the city. Later it was learned that that was the location of the mosque where people saw Muslims dancing and cheering in the streets. All was not perfect unity and peace.