On September 11, 2001 I was a dispatcher at The Monitor newspaper in McAllen, Texas. I was sending district managers out to redeliver missed papers or replace damaged and incomplete ones. The morning was a typical busy one. It had gotten a little peaceful when James Alexander called in. He was an ex-DJ turned district manager. A radio station was reporting that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York City. James was wondering if it was a dj prank. I slipped away to check the publisher's TV. He always had it on. He liked to come in early sometimes. He was a Navy man. Today he was there early. People from the Classified Department were watching the horrific footage. I went back to my radio to tell James it was real and not a prank.
By 11:00 a.m. I was done with my split shift. I would have to come back at 3pm to run the day end reports and staple messages for newspaper carriers. I was informed I would work overtime. I would sell Special Edition copies if customers came by. I was not too thrilled by that. I wanted to focus on the reports.
I took a bus into Edinburg, Texas to kill some time. It began to drizzle. Downtown McAllen, Texas was full of people with zombie expressions. They could not believe what had happened. The 2nd tower had gone down.
I would not leave till 8pm that evening.
WE must never forget the people WE lost that day.
