September 11, 2001 - Importance of keeping US control of Internet

On September 11, 2001, I worked in the mid-town area of New York City.  After the World Trade was hit by planes, I couldn't use the phone.  No Blackberry, no phone....no communication.  Since my field was Internet Security, my next thought was to attempt to contact my son in Los Angeles via email.  I didn't know his email address at work, so I tried several configurations of an email address.  One of them worked.

If I had not had the freedom to use the Internet to contact my family, they would not have known that my daughter and I were alive.  They thought I still worked in the World Trade Center.  Actually, my daughter was working 500 paces from the South Tower.

This is why I believe that the President Obama's move to give away 'control of the Internet' to any other country is a very bad move.  Read  http://www.wnd.com/2016/08/new-pushback-over-obamas-internet-giveaway/

As I was purging some old files, I found the following.  Only names and personal information have been removed.  Note:  Some memories are so important, you just can't throw them away.

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001 8:19am

Subject:  RE:  T**** and I are OK!

Importance:  High

C****,

I hope this is your e-mail address.   T**** called me.  She worked a block from World Trade.  She is in a co-worker’s (T. K.) apartment at 23^rd and 2^nd.  I told her to stay there unless she’s evacuated.  T**’s address is *******.  Just in case, his phone number is 654*******.

My building is in lock-down.   A friend, S****, from Merrill Lynch called me to say I should go to her house on First Ave.  S****’s home phone is 212*******.  All transportation has been shut down so I guess I’ll be in this building unless something else happens.

Will contact you, hopefully tonight.

Love,

Mom

**********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001 9:24 am

Subject:  RE:  T**** and I are OK!

Thank God for e-mail…. Love, Mom

**********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001 10:18 am
Subject:  RE:  T**** and I are OK!

A*****,

Subject:  T**** and I are OK!

Importance:   High

I can’t use long-distance and can’t get out of NYC.  Please call your sisters and let them know T**** and I are ok. 

T**** left me a phone message after everything happened.  She is very shaken up.  She told me she was going home.  I don’t know how since I hear that Manhattan has been closed.

Love,

Mom

**********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001  11:58 am

From:  C****

Thanks for the message!  I’m very relieved you are both OK!  E-mail data as necessary.

Love,

C****

*********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001 12:36 pm

From: C****

The phone number for T****’s friend is wrong.  Do you have another?  I called B**** and B**** and told them you two are O.K. and may stay with friends in the city.

Love,

C****

*********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001  12:53 pm

Subject:  RE:  T**** and I are OK!

C****,

I just spoke with her (646*******)  Droves of people are walking the streets.  My company has offered me a hotel room.  I’m waiting to hear.  If I get it T**** will stay with me. T**** is worried that Dad doesn’t know she’s all right.  Please let him know.

Love,

Mom

**********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001  12:56 pm

Subject:  RE:  T**** and I are OK!

C****,

You may not be able to get T****.  The long distance is not working everywhere.

Love,

Mom

*********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001  1:16 pm

From:  C****

I spoke with Dad.  He now knows you two are OK.  Aunt B is the only phone number I don’t have.  Hang in there.

In case you don’t know the first WTC building was hit by a 737, the second WTC building was hit by another 737 about 18 minutes later, the Pentagon was hit by a plane as well.  A fourth crashed outside Camp David.  So far, the airlines report 4 planes hijacked.  All airlines across the country are shut down and international flights diverted outside the country.  The first WTC building is pretty much destroyed, it collapsed a short while after the top half of the second building collapsed. 

We will figure out who is responsible and eventually get them for this.

I love you,

C****

********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001 2:29 pm

From:  C****

Mom,

What is your work phone number?  I just called T**** at her friend’s and he said she had left to meet you.

C****

*********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001  1:24 pm
Subject:  RE:  T**** and I are OK!

C****,

I spoke with Aunt B.  My company’s offer of a hotel room is fading fast.  No one wants to leave the rooms they have since they can’t travel anywhere.  I will either stay overnight in my office building or make my way down to the Sandy’s apartment on ****** St.  I told T**** if I get the room, she can come to me.  Otherwise, she has to stay where she is for now.

Metro North has opened up but one of the managers called me to say that there has been a threat to Grand Central as well.  Just waiting and praying for all the people.

Love,

Mom

********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001  2:39 pm

Subject:   Re:  Sending love and prayers

Hi Mom,

I know it will be difficult to reach you by phone, but I thought I would send an email. It was good to find out that you and T**** are okay.  Hard to imagine that something like this can strike so close to home.

We are thinking of you and T****.  If you do happen to speak with her, please let he know that we send our love.

With love and prayers,

H****

********************************************************************************

Sent:     Tuesday, September 11, 2001 2:42 pm

Subject:   Re:  Sending love and prayers

Thanks, H****,

 T**** just arrived. We will attempt to get to Metro North.  Hopefully, we’ll get on a train.

Love,

Mom

**********************************************************************************

Sent:     September 13, 2001  5:05 pm
Subject:   Re:  Sending love and prayers

H****,

Sorry, I never get to speak with you.  However, it so special for me to hear from you when I needed it.

Love,

Mom

*********************************************************************************

Sent:     September 13, 2001  11:47 am

Subject:  Sending love and prayers

Good Morning.

C**** told me that you had gone back to work, and I couldn’t believe it!  How are you doing?  I would imagine that you are still in shock and slowly processing the events of this week.  Please be careful and feel free to call us at any time to talk with either C**** or with me.

Love,

H****

**********************************************************************************

Sent:     September 14, 2001  1:10 pm

Subject:  Sending love and prayers

Hi H****,

It’s a bit nerve-wracking.  Buildings are sporadically evacuated.   Not ours, though.  The mood everywhere is somber.  My train was only about 40% full this morning (not normal).

My safe-haven providers (S**** & husband) left a message for me at 6:00 am today.  They left the City for a few days.  S**** said that will all the sirens and emergency vehicles, they couldn’t get any sleep.  We had worked together at Merrill Lynch in one of the World Financial Center (World Trade) buildings. 

Just pray for the poor people who haven’t heard anything from their loved ones and the rescue workers.

Will talk again,

Love,

Mom

*********************************

If you agree that the Internet should remain under United States' control, contact Congress today.  I believe the schedule for relinquishing control is October 1, 2016.

************

Please feel free to share a comment

Perhaps by Catherine Hall (on Kindle and the Nook) 

The Book of Micah by Catherine Hall (on Kindle and the Nook) 

Sept 11 Remembered

The following is a personal account.  I've reprinted it several times on the anniversary of Sept.11, 2001.

No American civilian should ever have to experience the events of 9/11 on American soil. And, my experience of that day is in no way comparable to the heartache of the families of the victims. The following is just my personal recollection of that day.

As my train pulled into Grand Central Station that morning, I heard some buzz from other commuters. But, it was none of my business so I just got off the train and walked the underground tunnel to the Forty-fifth Street exit. As I walked up Madison Avenue, I saw a throng of people standing around a bank looking at a TV. As I tried to see that they were looking at, somehow I got the message that something happened at the World Trade Center. I remember looking in that direction, seeing smoke, and trying to use my phone, and then, trying my Blackberry. No signal. I proceeded north to my office on 52nd St. When I arrived, I saw that I had a message from my daughter who worked near the World Trade Center. However, I could not reach her since I had no phone service.

I proceeded to work. A short while later, I heard that there was a TV in Personnel. So, I went to that floor to see what was going on. After a few minutes, I squeezed into the room. The scene was incredulous. I decided that for me the best thing was to go back to work. Young people on my floor were just milling around. We were the IT (computer) department. They either had IT friends in those World Trade buildings or, like me, had previously worked there themselves. I tried to work, but at the back of my mind were all the tens of thousands of commuters who literally poured out of the ground from the PATH (a train from New Jersey). What happened to all those people? Many, many times I had walked through the underground shopping Plaza and the passage ways under those buildings as a shortcut to save time. Since my commute was 2 ½ hours each way from upstate New York, I was always running to be on time at work. In November 2000, a co-worker and good friend gave me a job lead that resulted in my leaving the World Trade Center and moving to 52nd Street. As an aside, I later heard that a very smart female executive of the Port of Authority ordered the trains diverted to the mid-town area of New York City, saving many lives. I thought of how I would take my lunch into one of the glassed-in areas of my building and look at the Towers. How magnificent they were. Of course, I was just looking at the lower floors. I thought the design was intriguing.

Later that morning, I finally heard from my daughter who was with her co-workers at an apartment in lower Manhattan. One of the workers just took his whole department to his home. I advised my daughter to stay right where she was with her co-workers unless they were evacuated. Then, I was contacted by a great friend from Merrill Lynch inviting me to stay the night at her place since the City was in "lock-down."

Being in Computer Security, I decided, since I had no phone, to try sending emails to get messages to my children. I thank the good Lord for the “Information Highway.” Being able to contact my family in an event such as this is why I feel so strongly that there should be no Government interference with the Internet. I emailed friends in San Diego requesting that they contact my family. My children thought I still worked in the World Trade Center. Exactly where I worked was not one of their concerns. I didn’t know my son’s work e-mail address, but decided to create the addresses in different ways. Surely, one of the emails would get through. Not knowing was going to happen next, I wrote to my son that his sister and I were OK. I gave him the address and phone number for the apartment where she was staying. Then, I gave him the phone number of the friend with whom I would be staying. Without being melodramatic, I thought this might be the last communication we could possibly have. It brings me to tears when I think of it.

Around noon, I went to the bank to get money since I couldn’t get home that night. The sea of people walking, shoulder to shoulder, north out of the City on both sidewalks of Park Avenue was at least five people deep. It was an amazing, yet fearful sight.

Around 1pm, my daughter, accompanied by a co-worker, walked the 30 blocks to be with me. Her hair was covered in ash. I got her in our “locked-down” building. When we reached my office, the phone rang. It was my son in Los Angeles. My daughter, wide-eyed and in shock, told him what happened….her words just spilling out. I tried to calm her down. Her only response to me was, “You weren’t there.”

Then, my daughter told me we just had to get out of the City. She kept pressing. As far as I knew, we couldn't go anywhere. I decided to leave and walk to Grand Central to see if any trains were moving. I never in my lifetime had been prepared for what I saw.

As we walked the now eerily empty Park Avenue south to the train station, we were met with men with megaphones ordering us where to go. We walked a sidewalk cordoned off with safety tape into what seemed like the only open entrance. Other than the sea of people in the great expanse of the center of the building, I don’t remember much except that my mind kept reeling, thinking that something else could happen at any moment. Before long, we were on a train leaving the City.

That evening, watching TV, I saw the real events I knew nothing about because I tried to work that day. I realized that I, being the kind of employee I was, would have returned to my desk in one of those buildings when the “All Clear” announcement was given.

My daughter and I were now safe, but what about those people who died. What about their families? Even today, my heart goes out to them

I realize that this is a sharp contrast to my usually light-hearted and hopefully informative blog. I will always remember my daughter walking 30 blocks to my uptown office, covered in ash from those collapsed buildings….wide-eyed and in shock, having seen death and destruction not many American civilians have ever seen. And, as I said in the beginning of this writing, no American citizen should ever have to experience the events of 9/11 on American soil and no one should ever forget.

Please feel free to share a comment

Perhaps by Catherine Hall (on Kindle and the Nook) 

The Book of Micah by Catherine Hall (on Kindle and the Nook)