My annual September 11th post... apologies for the repeat, but this date cannot be forgotten...it is as indelibly etched on the U.S. psyche as is December 7th...and it is just as meaningful to me as in the past.

As time passes, it has become mere "history" to some, like WW II or any other historical event. Students graduating from high school as part of the class of 2019 were just newborns on September 11, 2001. (It is good to know that NYS now has a law establishing a “September 11th Remembrance Day.” The new law allows for a brief moment of silence in public schools across the state at the beginning of the school day every September 11th to encourage dialogue and education in the classroom, and to ensure future generations have an understanding of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks and their place in history. The law is effective immediately.)

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We were in the World Trade Center until the first attack in February 1993. (My office was on the 100th floor, facing the Lady of the Harbor. I remember the walk down in the dark and smoke). We then moved temporarily to our midtown offices on B’way and 50th Street. Thank goodness, my managing partner decided NOT to move back to the WTC – a gutsy decision based on client and political pressures, but a wise one in retrospect and one that considered the employees of the firm. We moved across West Street to the World Financial Center (now "Brookfield Plaza").

On September 11th, I was in London for a series of meetings. Someone into the conference room and said that a plane went into the Trade Center...and had to make the point that she was not kidding, based on our reactions. We spent the next day trying to reach our families, crying and watching CNN. My wife was on the BQE (for those o/s of NY, that’s the Brooklyn Queens Expressway) heading to work and saw the planes hit. My son was in his senior year at Duke.

I headed off to Zurich for another meeting, since I couldn’t get back home anyhow. I ended up being able to get back to the States on Saturday, but with the “lottery” of air availability, flew into Pittsburgh. Luckily my travel service was able to get me a rental car at Pittsburgh, and I started the long ride back to Queens. Stopped in PA for the night, eyes almost closed from fatigue and emotion. On Sunday morning, I crossed the Verazzano Narrows Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn and saw the smoke rising from what was the WTC complex. Tears again…pulled off the road until I composed myself.

This is NOT about me, but my life has not been the same since – professionally or personally. My wife (an atty by profession) is a volunteer with the cops of the NYPD, and has embedded herself even more into that group of heroes to help any way she can. I went on an intellectual journey, and went back to school at NYU at the age of 53 for a masters in int’l relations. (We suddenly learned that something was out there...and I realized that I had so much to learn on the subject.) My son decided that he was “coming home”…he graduated Duke in 2002 and went to law school in NYC. The magnet was there.

My office looked RIGHT out on the site, so I saw the clean-up and the rise of the new structures and development of the memorial on an almost daily basis. It hit me each and every day what was there, but thankfully, also what has now risen from those (literal) ashes. (We later moved to 30 Rock and I have left the firm due to mandatory retirement requirements.) I will again watch the ceremonies, with tears in my eyes.

God bless the victims, the first responders, and those who we have lost since that day. God bless those who protect us here and abroad...and never forget that we must remain vigilant - that this remains an evil world with those dedicated to the destruction of the U.S. and our allies.