It was a day when everything stopped.
I’ll never forget that morning, 14 years ago. Few things can bring the daily business in an ER to a screeching halt, but the pictures on the TV that morning did. Even the patients and their parents were glued to the TV screens in the rooms, minor (and some fairly major) complaints forgotten. Everyone horrified, near tears. It took several hours before things got back to normal, and even then, every TV was tuned to the news for the rest of that day and for several days after.
I don’t think the world is a better place today, despite all that the government keeps trying to do for (and to) us. I don’t think it’s safer. I don’t think tomorrow is brighter. I don’t spend every day obsessing over the future, but I do try to make plans for it, because I don’t think what’s coming is going to be pretty.
But I’ll never forget that morning and how everyone came together for a time.