Remembering

Tomorrow, American’s will mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Ten years have elapsed since that day—ten not always very kind years, I reflect as I look back on them.

I was working at the headquarters of a large technology company in the Bay Area on 9/11, and I remember that day and the immediate days following vividly. There was confusion in the office the morning of 9/11 when I arrived. One of our co-workers had become a national hero that morning, helping overpower the terrorists on United Flight 93, but none of us knew of his heroism as we arrived at work that morning. All of us were shaken to our very cores, and we weren’t sure if the office really should be open, but there was a sense that most of us had that a giant enterprise like ours, with offices and operations all over the world, really had to keep on functioning, at least as much as we could. And, so for the balance of the day of 9/11, we did just that.

A few days later—on the second or maybe the third day after 9/11, I don’t remember exactly—the company announced that at approximately ten in the morning, employees would voluntarily gather outside on sidewalks around the saltwater lagoon that our company’s campus buildings cluster around on three sides) for a moment of silence in remembrance of the fallen.
At that time, the company I worked for had somewhere between eleven and twelve thousand people working at the headquarters campus. On that day, with a clear blue sky and the sun brightly shining overhead, all of these people—I was just one of very many—rode the elevators and walked down the stairs to the ground floor, and out into that brilliantly beautiful sunshine.

As we exited the buildings, we passed by volunteers handing out small American flags you could hold in your hand. We filed around the placid lagoon, surrounding it completely, five, six or even seven rows of people deep on all sides. At least ten thousand people—enough people to fill a college football stadium—every one of us with an American flag in our hands. We were silent except for our footfalls as we took up our places; there was none of the usual greetings, banter that occurs when people get together. There was no joking or small talk, no debates, no arguments.

Some employees like me were US born and raised in the US, but many others—a majority actually—were from India, China, the Philippines, Iran, Japan, Israel, Canada, Mexico, the UK, France, and all over the world. Our gathering had representatives from all the major world religions: Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, atheist and agnostic. We stood next to each other, shoulder to shoulder, sad, and respectfully silent. Each of us held one of those small American flags in our hands.

That day we were, regardless of race or national origin, Americans.

At least ten thousand people, janitors, administrative assistants, cooks, security guards, software developers, marketing people, accountants, mid and top level executives, and the company’s founder and CEO, who for a brief time had been literally ‘the richest man in the world’, all stood together on that beautiful, sad, sunny day, all of us holding an American flag in our hands.

Over ten thousand people—married, single, gay, straight, lesbian—all stood sadly, respectfully, shoulder to shoulder on than brilliantly sunny morning, united in our sense of loss, our sadness at what had just happened, with an American flag held in each of our twenty thousand hands.

That day took place under that azure sky in September 2001. Here we all stood, over ten thousand men and women strong. A more diverse group you could scarcely imagine coming together in place, but on that day, there was no partisan rancor, there was no ideological or racial or religious division, or disrespect for anyone's sexual preference. In that moment we were united in our solemnity, and in the love and respect we all had the country that we all lived in together. Our ten thousand small American flags quietly fluttered in the light breeze; there was a sea of red, white and blue everywhere I looked.

The memory of seeing of all those people standing so quietly, so respectfully, unified in emotion and in purpose is a sight I will take with me all the rest of my life. I’ve never been so proud to be an American, and at the same moment never so sad to be one as I was on that day.