16 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2021
FEATURE
WHAT WAS ON OUR MINDS THE
BY ROBBIE WOLIVER
We all know where we were when we
first heard the news that America was
being attacked. It is hard to accept that
the day even happened, much less that
so many years have already passed. So
on this anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001
attacks, the Press has decided to reprint
a column written by former Editor in
Chief Robbie Woliver on the second
anniversary of 9/11. It takes a glimpse at
how the day began – normal, uneventful
– and by the time the sun had set, the
world had been set on its side, forever
altered.
There have been moments in our history
when time was blindsided. One vivid
example was in 1945 when the atomic
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and
scorched shadows of simple things—
trees, flowers, architecture, humanity—
forever, indelibly searing the images
into their surroundings. Another was
on Sept.11, 2001, when our perception
of time was snatched, held at bay and
returned to us broken, scattered and
forever reset.
When asked, “Where were you when it
happened?” we all remember vividly.
We recall the room we were in, what
we ate for breakfast, the specks of lint
we tried to remove from our clothes
before work, who broke the news to us
first. But what we forgot was the greater
world around us. We lost our anchor
point—the here and now. Post-9/11 became
a new era marker, like B.C or A.D.
Suddenly, very little existed before that
day.
September 11th was to be a day that very
much revolved around the future. Primaries
were to be held on Long Island
and in New York City. Michael Jordan
announced that he was coming out of retirement.
Mariah Carey was poised for
a post-breakdown comeback. Dr. Will
was battling Nicole for the $500,000
Big Brother 2 grand prize. Important
things. But sometime during breakfast,
or the morning shower, or the commute
to work, or the coffee break, or first-period
English, the clocks stopped.
As with generations before us, we
turned to the media, glued to the TV,
enduring hours on end of that plane
slamming into that building. Time was
so skewed, it’s almost impossible to remember
anything else. Think back to
that time and you’ll hear Enya’s “Only
Time” as its soundtrack, but what was
the No. 1 song blaring at 8 a.m. that
morning on radios across the country?
Clockwise from top left: intern Chandra Levy was missing and remained big news; Janet Reno announced her gubernatorial
intentions; Michael Jordan was set for a comeback; Dr. Will was conniving his way through Big Brother 2; Shrek was
What was life like prior to that devastating
moment? What were we talking
about at the water cooler? Looking back,
an exercise in post-traumatic stress
memory recall, is also the need to remember
what might have been.
You may very well remember the shirt
you wore that day, but it is hard to recall
the news of the world before that moment
at 8:46:26 a.m., when time became
twisted. It seems like a year ago, it seems
like yesterday, it seems like a lifetime
ago.
On Tuesday, September 11th, 2001,
many Long Islanders greeted the clear,
beautiful morning by picking up their
newspapers from their driveways. Many
of us looked at the sky, not sensing
the impending doom that would soon
traverse it, but rather to marvel at an
unusually brilliant azure awning.
Sitting at the kitchen table, some of us
glanced at Newsday’s headline, “Israel’s
New Fear: The Enemy Within,” shook
our heads and felt compassion for Middle
Easterners, wondering how they live
day to day under the threat of constant
violence, but still quietly pleased that
terrorism was something that struck
there and not here.
On Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, zip
code 11048 ceased to exist, and thousands
of people who went to work there thinking
they would return home did not.
HEROES AND VILLAINS
Some Long Islanders were watching
News 12, waiting for local traffic reports
and weather. The news that day was basically
about the primaries. Glen Cove
Mayor Tom Suozzi was running against
State Assemb. Tom DiNapoli (D-Great
Neck) for Nassau County Executive in
the Democratic primary. Lizzie Grubman
was big news, as was Gary Condit
and his then-missing-now-murdered
intern Chandra Levy. News 12 ran a
story on immigrants in Farmingville,
all part of its morning package.
“A confident Suozzi, out to convince
voters that what Nassau needs is a CEO,”
was the track over News 12’s story on
the Nassau County Executive race, a
story which featured both candidates
encouraging their supporters to come
out and vote.
Anchor Carol Silva: “We’re still waiting
for a ruling from a grand jury about
whether celebrity publicist Lizzie
Grubman will be indicted on criminal
charges.” Grubman’s was a small accident.
An SUV. A few injuries.
Terry Sherwood, a stay-at-home mother
who has become an activist fighting
against the illegal day laborers who
moved to Farmingville from Central
and South America accusing the immigrants
of everything from disturbing
traffic to manslaughter and sex abuse.
Suffolk Police Inspector Kenneth Rau
disputed that accusation, showing
crime statistics which indicated that
since 1999, only about 6 percent of
the arrests made in Farmingville had
involved noncitizens. Sherwood’s exclamation
of “we are not racists,” in her
local war, was soon to be lost to a greater
battle.
Newsday had, perhaps, one of its
most foreboding stories of the day: its
coverage of that past weekend’s Great
Irish Fair, by freelancer Sorah Shapiro.
Fairgoers commemorated the memory
of Brian Fahey, Harry Ford and John
Downing, the Queens firefighters who
died in the line of duty in what is now
known as the Father’s Day Fire. The
story ended with a quote from a fair
participant, Maryann Owens: “Their
memory should not be forgotten when
this event is over.” Two of those firefighters
were from Rescue Company
No. 4 in Woodside, Queens. They would
lose another nine firefighters just three
months later, on September 11th, two
days after the fair.
THE EMPEROR’S OLD CLOTHES
The most dramatic instance of how time
and perception collided involved Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani, who was perceived
180 degrees differently on the morning
preceding the attacks than he would be
hours later. He had very little clout in
the impending New York City primary.
Although he fared well in the polls, he
was a much-disliked mayor in many
circles. He fought with the Patrolmen’s
Benevolent Association, he fought
with civilians over police brutality. He
attempted to shut down publicly funded
museums over exhibits that were offensive
to him. He alienated the governor
No. 1.
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