I will always remember that day. I was off work so like most of us who are use to getting up very early, I slept in. I don’t remember my dream at all. All I rememeber was hearing my phone ring at about 9:00 or so. It was my sister.

“Michael you will not believe what just happened?”

I was still quite dazed and was in the process of collecting my thoughts.

“What happenened?”

“A plane just flew into the World Trade Center.”

It is something now that I think about it but for some reason I was acting very calm about it. Not really taking it seriously. Yet part of me was still trying to wake up.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes Mike, the news just came on and ………… OH MY GOD!!!!!! ANOTHER PLANE JUST HIT THE OTHER TOWER!!!”

At this point I knew along with the rest of the world that we were under attack. I got up and turned on my television and the sight I beheld was breathtaking. Seeing those two tall buildings standing proudly like they always had before burning from the top like candles. It was horrific to say the least.

“Oh Jesus, Lord please don’t let this be true!”

Yet it was and not long after that the attack on the Pentagon was announced. Both my sister and I talked a little bit more and by now my voice started shaking out of anger and a little bit of fear. Fear because we did not know what was to come next.

I got off of the phone and was glued to the television. The last thing on my mind was the idea that these towers were about to fall. I had just come back from New York city 3 weeks prior to all of this and for the first time I drove in Manhattan and parked my vehicle down in Battery Park. We were there to peform at a Christian Hiphop event called “Rapfest 2000.” I saw the towers that night and the height of these towers in person was unbeleieveable. I could not fathom something like this happening. I had a girlfriend who lived in the Bronx and at the time I thought she went to school in Manhattan. So I was really freaking out.

At this time though I sat stunned. All of the sudden while Tom Brokaw kept showing the sudden impact over and over again they took the cameras back to the present state of the world trade centers (still standing). While he was talking with someone they fell right before my eyes. I felt hopeless. Yes all the way in Columbus Ohio I felt hopeless. Hopeless for the people, the firemen, the policemen. I thought of the many people still trapped in the buildings. Soon the other building followed and instantly all of Lower Manhattan looked like a warzone. I fell in Love with that city both times that I went. I fell in love with the people.

I desperateley tried getting through to my girlfriend but the lines were busy. She later called me in total shock and fear.

Throughout the day and into the night they kept playing it over and over again to the point where when I went to sleep that night I kept seeing the images. Infact the next day I woke up and I just could not believe what I had just witnessed.

My brother just came in from job hunting and I asked him if he heard about it. He told me he did but he did not see it. I took him to the television and he could not beleieve the sight of Manhattan in smoke and debris.

Friends called my house to talk about it and we all had prayer. One of my friends said “Man, it’s the last days.”

It was not hard to beleive after seeing that. After seeing The challenger explode at the age of 9. After seeing the LA riots in my 10th grade year, After seeing the Oklahoma city bombing, after wittinesing the Columbine shootings on the news at my job. I can say that nothing could compare to seeing this hellish, day on a beatiful Septemeber morning. No doubt that all of the aforementioned events were tragic within themselves but it was as if the earth stopped when all of this happened.

Here we are 7 months later and I still cannot believe that this has happened. I must say that it hurts me more than anything to see Americans with the mentality of “Back to things as usual.” I pray that we do not forget or take lightly what we was unfathomable 8 months ago. We had alot of prayer services but no sooner than that everyone was right back to the party. We need to seek the Lord Jesus. That is what I did and it makes a world of difference.

My prayers still go out to the families of the victims. The pain they feel is still there.

God Bless America