Following are reprints from Ace’s September 13, 2001 edition. We received an email from a former intern, then living in NYC, and phone calls from our former VVM boss, Albie DelFavero, who was in a plane over NYC.
Today, September 11
By Eric Newman
Ace Intern, Spring 2001; freshman, New York University
Today, I woke up to the horrified screams of pedestrians on the gray pavement of Fifth Avenue, four floors below my dorm room window. Craning my head out the window to see what I suspected was a horrible car accident, I was shocked to see all heads pointed south, over the historic arch of Washington Square Park. What I saw as I mimicked the onlookers’ gazes looked like something out of a movie, beyond the scope of reality, completely surreal. The towers of the World Trade Center were both afflicted with gaping holes, lined with licking orange flames, and billowing a thick gray smoke.
I have truly seen the worst and the best of the human condition in less than twenty-four hours.
I have seen animals topple and destroy the international symbol of free trade and democracy, burying in the rubble of some misguided fanaticism (for which I am sure they will be duly handled, both by God and global government) the lives of so many American citizens. I watched in utter disbelief, over my friend’s shoulder – her hair sticking to my open mouth – as the second tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, each section of the high rise crunching down onto the sections below, crushing innocent Americans as it plummeted towards the ground.
Yet, I have also seen the greatest display of human compassion to which I will ever bear witness. Smoke and dust from this morning’s disaster still in the sky, I looked for volunteer work this afternoon, searching to do whatever I could. wherever I could.
In short, I found that I could be of no help to any of the local institutions – they were simply overwhelmed with volunteerism and blood donations, from the community of New York City.
I have seen strangers embrace on the street, merely for the sake of comforting another human being. Black and white, Asian and European all blended in the streets in the wake of the tragedy, crying and holding one another.
Dining halls opened their doors, refusing to accept money or University cards in exchange for food.
I have seen for the first time in eighteen years the strength of our American nation and for the first time in my life, I felt an intense surge of national pride. In the face of such a tragedy, I have learned the greatness of America – of how great it is to be American – and do humbly prophesize that my observations today will be reflected in the prompt action against the terrorist perpetrators of this act, this crime, against the American ideal and the freedom of global commerce.
I have an unexplainable, intrinsic knowledge that the nation will overcome this tragedy – America is too great a country, too great an idea, to be destroyed by the machinations of terrorist animals. Though today was undoubtedly one of the most tragic in modern American history, it could be our finest – to prove to the world the power, the strength, the solidarity and the resiliency of the American people. -Eric Newman
Ace intern, Spring, 2001; Freshman, New York University; New York City, NY; September 11, 2001
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reprinted September 13, 2001
By Albie Del Favero [with Bruce Dobie]
Editor’s Note: Albie Del Favero, executive vice president of Village Voice Media and founding publisher of the Nashville Scene, was our direct supervisor during the tenure that VVM owned Ace. He boarded an American Airlines flight early Tuesday to New York. He was to attend a company board meeting in a Manhattan office. Instead, from the air, he witnessed one of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history on U.S. soil.
This is his account, as relayed to the Scene from a pay telephone in Long Island. [This essay is reprinted with the permission of the Scene.]
There was nothing unusual about the flight. Everything was normal. We were on our approach. Then the stewardess said, “Look, the World Trade Center is on fire. There’s smoke billowing out.” There weren’t many people on the flight, so I moved to the left-hand side of the plane to an aisle seat.
Soon, everyone on the plane is starting to talk about it.
Really, it was unbelievable because when you fly into New York on a gorgeous day, it’s just beautiful. And it was a gorgeous day – not a cloud in the sky. It was sort of bizarre because the smoke wasn’t moving – it was just hanging in the air, sitting there. And all of a sudden, this explosion just occurs. It was this incredible ball of fire. And that was the second plane. At that point, the guy behind me says, “I was supposed to stay there tonight.” He worked for J.P. Morgan or something, and he was supposed to be spending the night in the World Trade Center.
Still, at that point, nobody is freaking out. But everyone is saying they think it might have been a bomb. It was such an odd thing. Nobody is panicking at all. And in fact, people are still not clued into the fact that this is such a tragedy. They’re still at the level of dealing with this as an interruption, or as a hassle. So, there was the back and forth between it being a tragedy to being a hassle.
So the plane lands naturally. Nobody says anything. At that point, nobody really knows anything. But the guy behind me gets on his cell phone and calls and finds out it’s a terrorist attack. So, then I called Sara [Del Favero’s wife], because I think she would be worried about me, and she finds out I’m okay. She had heard from CNN that an American Airlines jet had gone down, so she was upset. But as I am getting out of the plane, I still really didn’t know the extent of what had happened. As I’m walking out of the airport, I pass by a television in a bar, and they’re showing footage of the Pentagon having been bombed, and by then I’m understanding this is big.
Still, I’m thinking I’m headed into Manhattan for my board meeting.
I was walking out to get a cab to go into the city. But then everyone is told that all the bridges and tunnels into the city are closed. And at this point, airport security guys start ushering us out of the airport. And then they just start saying, “Go home. No more flights. Go home. No more flights.”
Like we’re supposed to go home. That’s when all these New York-style fights break out with everyone screaming at each other.
So they usher us outside the airport, and we stand there for like 30 minutes. And we’re sitting there outside LaGuardia looking at the two World Trade towers on fire. And then all of a sudden, we’re looking around, and then somebody goes, “They’re gone.” The buildings had collapsed.
So then, the security guards move us even further out from the airport, out to some access road or interstate. A bunch of us just go stand by this ramp. Then someone says all airports in the country are closed. And all I start thinking is, I want to go home.
Three of us then caught a cab, and we pooled some money, and we just headed away from Manhattan rather than toward it.
I’m in Long Island, and things are weird.
I got Sara to rent me a car, and I’m going to try to drive back to Nashville.
The saddest part about this is that one of my daughters called wanting to know if I was all right. My other daughter is on a school retreat.
I hate to think my poor children are old enough to have to understand how tragic this whole thing is. When Oklahoma City happened, they were so young they didn’t grasp it.
But now they can understand. That makes me very sad.
