Back Then

On September 11, 2001, I was in court in the old Civil Courts Building in dowtown Fort Worth. I think I heard on the radio just as I was arriving that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and I was immediately reminded of the Army Air Corps bomber that crashed into the Empire State Building in 1946. It wasn't until much later in the morning that I overheard other attorneys discussing the second plane and the second tower, and then my reaction was, "Please God, don't let it be one of us again!" I was thinking more in terms of Timothy McVeigh than Osama bin Laden at that point. The attorney on the other side of my case said he had a relative in New York. We negotiated a settlement, but by that time the building was being evacuated and we had a difficult time locating a judge to sign off. On the way to the office, I listened to the news on the radio, but I didn't really comprehend how bad it was until I was back. We all crowded around the television in the conference room and I watched the towers collapse with a sick, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I watched members of Congress standing on the steps on the Capitol singing "God Bless America," and I felt proud, but I was already wondering how long that spirit would last. I thought about all my friends in the military and I wondered where they would be going and how soon. That's how my day went, back then.