FEATURE: One year later
FEATURE: One year later
Prior to that fateful day a year ago when the World Trade Centre fell, the planet was beginning to spread out more and more. Despite the advent in the 1990s of the popularity of the Internet as a way of bridging communication gaps, everything was slowly becoming more fractured. While it is difficult at this point, twelve months later, to see the good in the attacks on the United States, at least for a little while it united the world in deeply heartfelt compassion towards something. The tragedy did help to bring out the best in a lot of strangers.

Obviously, words are still just words when trying to describe what it was like to experience that day, even here in remote old New Brunswick. Like many other people in North America, I was at work when the planes fell. Certainly, I didn't have any ominous feelings that morning; it felt pretty much like any other morning as far as I can remember. A co-worker stood up at his desk and said something aloud, to which a few people were gasping in awe. I didn't catch what he'd said so I went over to his desk and he told me again about the first crash. It was at that point that everyone started checking websites, frantic for information. Others went downstairs to the pub that has two largescreen televisions in hopes of receiving information they could relay to those stuck at their desks.

While we noticed a drop in customer contact that day, surprisingly my position at the time was not impacted by the incident, and I continued to work even after many of my co-workers had gone home. When I did get back, I watched news on several different channels with a good friend of mine. Sometimes all we could do was watch the footage as it trickled in, at other points we discussed what had happened and what would happen from here. I have to admit, even in remote old New Brunswick, I was still unnerved while lying in bed before falling asleep. Whoever was behind the attacks had just gone and given a G-8 country a bloody nose, and there was no way of knowing if the incidents were all over the time being or were just starting.

The days and weeks that followed proved that the attacks were, for the most part, an isolated incident, but it clearly put the world on edge. The United States would eventually pull out every resource they could to try to flush out the main suspect, Osama bin Laden, from hiding, but to date there has been very little progress. Vengeance has had to take a back seat to grief.

So many testimonials have been published, written and recorded from the survivors and also about the victims, that one would think the copious amount would get tedious. For me though, the truth is, when I check out Time's website and peruse through the coverage, other than the patriotic embellishment, I find myself moved at the stories and pictures of people I've never met and will never meet.

Here at work, one year later, we had fifteen minutes of silence both to commemorate two company employees who perished in the World Trade Centre, and to reflect on the lives of all the others who had died. Fifteen minutes may seem like a long pause for a corporation to take, but even if you calculate one second of reflection for every person killed, you still only reach about one third of the total number who are now gone. I only hope there won't be any more reasons to pause in the year ahead.

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