That Terrible Day We Were Forever Changed

Where were you when the news broke of the attack on the World Trade Center?
I remember that Tuesday morning getting captions ready and editing the last stories for the Sept. 12 edition of the Herald.
Jean Barraclough, from the production department, came upstairs and said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. It sounded serious, but we had other work to do getting the newspaper ready for shipment to the printer in Maryland.
Editor Joe Zelnik had a small television in his office, and quickly turned it on. Shortly thereafter, Joe said a second plane hit the other tower. By this time we all started to gather around the portable set.
Later, we heard that still another jet crashed into the Pentagon. Nothing like this had ever happened to us or to “our” America.
At that time, on that day, none of us knew, nor could we fully understand how our lives would be forever changed.
Unbelieving, we were glued to television screens. We drank in those images of destruction from the air replayed goodness knows how many times. We wondered what it all meant.
How many were killed? How many survived? Was it an accident or, surely not, an attack by an enemy? Who could hate us so much as to want to strike the heart of New York City?
Not since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy had an event, and where we were when it happened, remained so crystallized in our memories.
In our small county community, word traveled quickly that one of our own native sons had been at work on the 105th floor with 750 other co-workers at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was an investment broker. One of us, Andrew Alameno, was killed in the attack. He was a graduate of Wildwood Catholic High School, married with a family. He was the son of a well-respected surgeon, Dr. Carmen and Grace Alameno.
As time passed, we learned more people knew others who had family or friends who were victims of the attacks on America.
Many Cape May County first responders, police, fire and rescuers, along with National Guard members, activated by Gov. Donald DiFrnacesco, quickly offered their services to assist at Ground Zero.
Some suffered lasting physical and mental effects from that temporary service, as did some peers in other emergency services.
A summer employee of the Herald, Jenn Winski, had returned to Montclair State University across the Hudson River from the smoking World Trade Center. She was adept with a camera, and recorded the image of Tower 1 on fire and Tower 2 down from afar. It is a chilling reminder of that historic moment from someone we knew who was close to that tragic scene.
In the aftermath, we prepared many stories about how local people were affected by the attack. One of those with whom I spoke was Marie Sluberski of Dias Creek. For 12 years, she had been operations manager at the World Trade Center, supervising a staff of 1,200. She was heartbroken to think that her friends and former co-workers were gone in the twinkling of an eye, at the hand of enemies of the American way of life.
“I spent so many hours there. I knew every corner of that place. It shook me so deeply. I lost a lot of friends that I met years ago. Still, to this day I cannot adjust to fact they are no longer there. My husband (Paul) was a patrol sergeant there, too. He lost a lot of friends,” she said.
“The World Trade Center represented America’s prosperity, our way of life. We took things for granted before. We are the target because of our freedoms. We are the target for narrow-minded people who don’t have any respect for others who try to implement their belief on others,” Sluberski said.
Less than a month after the attack, Tom Kinnemand and I traveled to New York City to a photographic trade show at the Jacob Javits Center. From the Port Authority Bus Terminal we walked past a New York Fire Department ladder company. It had a memorial wreath with names from that company who answered their last call helping others.
It was a chilling experience, and it made the attack personal, even though I knew none of those firefighters.
Sept. 11, 2001 was a day when all of us were attacked. We may have been hundreds or thousands of miles from Ground Zero, but at that moment, we united as Americans.
If we can recall, that sense of unity was heartwarming. People waved flags from the cars and yards. Blood donors flooded the American Red Cross. People couldn’t bleed fast enough, or so it seemed. They wanted to give money, blood, time, or anything to help, to be part of the homeland defense.
We sang patriotic songs. Churches and synagogues were jammed with believers, some had newfound faith, others exhibited dusty faith renewed. We prayed fervently, hoping Almighty God would hear our prayers.
Some renewed religious vows made years earlier, if God would be good and protect America from the evil, they would do anything, anything. Some remembered their vows others soon forgot.
On Friday at 5 p.m., freeholders will host a Patriots’ Day ceremony outside the county Administration Building, 4 Moore Road. The public is invited to attend.
The annual event has consistently drawn decent crowds, diminishing a bit each passing year. There were many who once taped slogans on their vehicles, “We Will Never Forget,” but I believe they did.
The zeal that united us has flagged. We targeted Saddam Hussein and Iraq as the demon. He is dead, Iraq remains in ruins and on the mend. We are leaving after far too long for another war.
The mastermind behind the Sept 11 attack, Osama bin Laden, remains on the loose to flaunt us from time to time with videotaped threats. Elusive as a morning fog, he still loathes us.
Has anything changed since Sept. 11, 2001?
Thousands of lives, some known to us, others unknown will never be the same.
We will never again freely walk aboard an airplane without first being inspected.
We will never again think of Sept. 11 as just another day.
Too much happened that day to ever forget.