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You are here: WiredSafety > Special Programs > September 11 > A message from Parry Aftab, Esq.
A message from Parry Aftab, Esq.
It was 8:40am on the morning of September 11th. I was running late, as usual, and was supposed to be at the Rosie Show at Rockefeller Center ten minutes before. I pulled into my parking garage, a few blocks from Rockefeller Center (which was near my office). I had just hung up from talking to Kelley, and turned on my radio. The talkshow hosts announced that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Centers. All of us speculated that it must have been another private plane and the pilot must have been tired, drugged or drunk. (Many years before, a private plane had hit the WTC, with little impact.)
I didn't give the crash much thought, instead worried about being so late for the show. My daughter had decided to drive in herself, later that morning, to give me more time, but traffic had held me up. I ran the few blocks to Rockefeller Center and as I entered the building someone grabbed my arm and shouted that a second jet had hit the WTC. I looked up at the Today Show ticker on the building in front of me, and nothing was there about the second plane. I chalked it up to hysteria, and ran to the show.
Rockefeller Center security knew me, but advised me that the building was going to be evacuated (it was a logical next target). I ignored them, and ran to the show, only to be told that Rosie had left half an hour before, and the show was cancelled.
I ran back to my office, still not believing that we had been attacked by terrorists, and thinking that perhaps the air traffic controllers has a problem with their systems. This was still very early, about 9:20am. Most people were still unaware of the attacks, while walking to work. I told people what had happened as I walked to my office, but many thought I was out of my mind. Others, who knew already were in tears and standing in shock.
While I was rushing back to the office, my law partner, Nancy Savitt, was on the phone with the WhiteHouse finalizing plans for a ceremony planned for the 18th of September honoring our work and delivering the President's message on online safety. Her call had ended when her secretary and the assistant at the WhiteHouse handed notes to each of them about the second plane.
When I arrived back at my office, there were several e-mails, and two voicemails. One voicemail was from the FBI, another from the WhiteHouse, making sure I was okay. The phones were out by then. But I had my two children in Manhattan that day, both much closer to the attacks than I was. I had my secretary, my partner and others trying the phones to find them…I sent an e-mail to the FBI and the WhiteHouse, and sent e-mails to the head of our law enforcement division back then, Rich Riley, and to Gambler, the head of our security team. I instructed them to find the terrorists online. I then reached out to a hacking group and asked for their help. Before the first building collapsed, we had teams searching the Internet for terrorists. Unbelievably, we found them…and started our work with the FBI on counter cyberterrorism.
We got through to my daughter, who was working about a mile for the attacks. I told her to take her SUV and drive up to my office. But we couldn't reach my son. (We later learned he had slept in and not gone to NY that day…)
We all expected more attacks. Everytime we heard a jet lower than usual, we expected to be attacked. I lived a half hour from Manhattan, but our drive home took seven hours that day.
As we inched our way up the streets, I felt like I was in a Godzilla movie. Thousands of people were walking aimlessly, crying and looking like zombies. The Queensborough Bridge (the one you saw people walking across on television.) was the only way out of Manhattan by car. (All other bridges and tunnels had been closed and would remain closed for hours, and in some cases months.) The upper level and the inbound lower level had been closed to cars, and people would walking across the bridge using those lanes. Thousands and thousands of people, many bloody and covered with dust. Some carrying young children, some were old and walking with canes, all had the same dazed expressions. Some jumped into trucks and took rides with anyone that had room in their cars. We tried to give rides to people, but they couldn't climb over the divider to the car. Tears streaking our dust covered faces, as we handed out bottles of water we had in the trunk of the SUV.
I arrived home to e-mails from people who were worried about our safety. Funny how many people you hadn't heard from for years worry about you in times like this.
All seemed normal at home in New Jersey. I live on the Hudson River, though, and could see the clouds of smoke from the WTC site. For some reason, we couldn't smell the burning, expect for one day a week after the attacks. Yet, since the attacks last year, I have not sat on my balcony anymore. The gap in the skyline still aches too much.
I
received an e-mail from one of our Teenangels.
A close friend had lost her dad at the WTC, and wanted my help in trying
to find him. That simple e-mail began our Family
Match program. Together with the Christmas
ornaments for the Ground Zero Christmas Tree, the toy
drive for children impacted by the attacks, our
search and rescue dog program and my Servous
the Hero Dog children's book, our E-Mail
to America program to help children of the world…whenever I felt
the pain, I would develop a new program. Chrstina Zisa never found her
dad alive. But in helping her, we helped so many others. The program was
dedicated to her father, Salvatore
Zisa and all those lost on that momentous day.
In November I was invited to speak at the Council of Europe. I proudly wore my red, white and blue flag ribbon. When I stood to speak, I saw the multi-national group staring at my ribbon, frowning at my bringing such a visible patriotic ornament into their non-US halls. But when I began my speech with my condolences to all of them for countrymen and women lost at the WTC attack, and prayed for world understanding, I was applauded. I accepted that applause for all of us….
When
the angels that were being made for the White House Christmas tree arrived
three weeks late, I found the ground zero tree to put them on. Grown men,
burly construction workers sprayed the paper angels with a plastic coating
so they could survive the winter weather…I stood there, for the first
time, at Ground Zero. I saw hope and generosity, not tragedy. I saw these
huge construction workers climbing on large cranes to put the angels at
the top of the tree. I cried, but not with the horror of the site. I cried
for all the people who worked so hard to out it all back together…I
cried for all the taxi drivers in London who told me they sent their love
and support to us. I cried for all of us, as Americans, and all those
around the world who had become honorary Americans that day…
It took six months for us to get back to our mission of online safety…and every day I remember the enormous generosity of our volunteers and people who helped us to help others.
God bless.
Parry