9/11 Perspective

The Heart of the Matter

I was at work that morning, as usual; in one of the engineering office buildings at Boeing’s commercial airplane factory in Everett, Washington; designing 767 parts. My lead engineer, who had been listening to the radio on his headphones, popped up in his cubicle, pushed one earpiece aside, and declared, ”A 767 just crashed into the World Trade Center!”

His declaration was met with a chorus of “What?” from the handful of us that were in the office that early. When the second plane hit, his headphones were unplugged, and the radio turned up. Two of them. One for each tower. That’s not an accident.

Disbelief is replaced with anger. As the buildings fall, one after the other, anger becomes rage, mixed with ample helpings of horror and grief, for the victims.

Rage. The Real Thing. They used my airplanes. The fruit of my labors for the better part of two decades. They turned them into weapons and used them against my people.

I can’t begin to explain how personal that is; or why.

The tears flow easily, even now; six years later. Rage, mixed with grief.

There’s more to the story, of course, but that’s the heart of it.

I'll Fly Away

On Sunday, September 2, 2007, with but a week's notice, Pastor Fred and I performed a duet during the Morning Service at our Church.

Fred plays guitar & sings Baritone, while I sing Bass.
Jeremy ran the sound board & pushed the "go" buttons on my digital recorder, then I edited & remastered it later on the computer.

Hope you have as much fun listening to it as we had doing it!