December 2001: Vol. 81, No. 1December 2001: Vol. 81, No. 1
was sitting at my desk at Stegeman Coliseum, lost in thought, when someone ducked into my doorway to ask where the nearest TV was.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because a plane just hit the World Trade Center."
"Oh," I said, thinking
It was a good five minutes before I realized how quiet our floor had gotten—and then, instinctively, I knew something really bad had happened, something I didn't want to watch with a crowd of people. I left the building and drove to my mom's house in Five Points. I listened to the radio on the way, but nothing I heard prepared me for the horrifying images of the World Trade Center ablaze—first the north tower, and then, as I was watching TV, the south tower was struck. I thought of the Challenger; this was a lot worse.
The phone rang. It was my sister, on her cell phone from Reagan National Airport in D.C. She was within minutes of boarding a plane to Atlanta when U.S. airspace was shut down—and she was talking very fast:
"They're telling us to forget our bags and get out of the terminal!" she said. And then, as she got outside, she began to lose her composure. "I hear something that sounds like explosions
It later became clear that the sounds she was hearing were actually coming from the Pentagon, which is near Reagan National.
I'm thankful my sister is safe, and, as this issue goes to press, the University of Georgia is not aware of any faculty member, student, staff member, or alum who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. If you know of anyone, please let me know—but I pray I won't hear from you.
Close calls? Yes. Ali Farahi (BBA '00) worked for Marsh USA insurance near the top of the north tower. Nobody up there got out alive. But when Ali arrived at work at 9 a.m. on Sept. 11, the building had already been hit. He walked home to Brooklyn. John Godfrey (BBA '64, PhD '76) and Mark Vitner (BBA '84) both fled the World Trade Center Marriott, where they were attending a conference. Godfrey and his wife were evacuated in different directions, and it was five nerve-wracking hours before they were reunited. Financier Charles Sanford Jr. (AB '58) was headed to his office at One BT Plaza, directly across the street from the WTC complex, when he learned of the terrorist attacks. Damage is so extensive to his building that he doubts he will ever re-occupy his office—which housed 35 years of business correspondence from his days as chairman and CEO of Bankers Trust.
For a time, we weren't sure about the safety of our cover subject, Bill DeCota, who had an office on the 65th floor of the north tower. His account of Sept. 11 and beyond—from the eye of the aviation storm—is a vivid reminder that Americans are often at their best when life is at its worst.
Our coverage of Sept. 11 also features an interview with UGA political science professor and CIA expert Loch Johnson, who discusses the intelligence community's failure to see it coming. A profile of Red & Black editor Samira Jafari adds a unique perspective, in that she was born in Iran to Islamic parents. In the aftermath of what happened at the World Trade Center, numerous campus forums and vigils were held with international students and UGA faculty adding their perspectives and helping this community cope with the terrorist attacks on America. Thanks to News Service designer Jan Beckley and UGA's New Media Institute, you can experience those forums by visiting www.uga.edu/news/september11.
To the seismologists at Columbia University's earth observatory in Palisades, N.J., the events of Sept. 11 were like tiny earthquakes, with the collapse of the south tower registering 2.3 on the Richter scale. The effect on our collective emotional Richter scales was inestimably higher.
