Mine isn’t a remarkable 9/11 story, but the memory is vivid.
On Sept. 11, 2001, I was in the office of the Allegheny County Elections Division, pulling campaign finance paperwork, when I heard a radio report that a plane struck the World Trade Center.
Then another. Then the Pentagon.
I hurried to City Hall. There, word circulated that another plane was coming our way. (It had already crashed near Shanksville, but city officials didn’t know that.) Council President Bob O’Connor gaveled the council meeting early.
By 11 a.m., my employer at the time, the Pittsburgh City Paper, told its staff to go home. I hopped on my bicycle, and pedaled past hundreds of cars creeping outbound — an early rush hour under a perfect early autumn sky.
Elsewhere, nearly 3,000 perished. I was fortunate not to lose a loved one, but joined many Americans in mourning the end of a simpler, safer era. I would soon learn terms like “racial and ethnic profiling” and “total information awareness,” which continue to echo today.
Twenty-five years later, 9/11 is one of those milestones — like the COVID-19 shutdowns — in our national journey and many personal journeys.
Pittsburgh’s Public Source wants Southwestern Pennsylvanians’ thoughts on the reverberations of 9/11. Share yours, and we’ll consider publishing them. (Contact information is required, but we won’t publish that.)
