Report From Ground Zero

Following September 11, 2001, I like so many Americans couldn't begin to fully grasp or understand what had happened. In an attempt to wrap my mind around and appreciate the sacrifice of so many I rented the book on tape Report from Ground Zero by Dennis Smith. I listened to it every day during my morning walk for about a month.

In the book Dennis walks you through the events of that day, and the days and weeks that followed, through the perspective of the firemen and emergency workers. In some respects I felts as if I was descending into the hell of that day. But I came out with insight or perspective of what the terrorist attacks were like for the brave men from New York City's Fire Department.

If you want to do something that will help keep the important lessons from September 11th in the forefront of your mind and remember the great sacrifice of so many...I would recommend and encourage you to read Report from Ground Zero. Below is an excerpt from Dennis Smith's website...from an editorial that was published in the New York Times. Please click on the link to read the full text of this and more works by Dennis.

WORST NIGHTMARE - The World Trade Center - 9/11/01
by DENNIS SMITH - NYTimes September 14, 2001

The second tower has just collapsed. I am at Ladder 16, and the firefighters have commandeered a crowded 67th Street cross-town bus. We go without stopping from Lexington Avenue to the staging center on Amsterdam. We don’t talk much on the bus, and not a single passenger complains about missing his or her stop. At Amsterdam we board another bus, and here the quiet is broken by a Lieutenant who says, “We’ll see things today we shouldn’t have to see, and there will be things we might think we should attend to, but listen up, we’ll do it together. We’ll be together, and we’ll all come back together boys.” He opens a box of dust masks and gives two to each of us.