The Big Picture by Lennie Peterson for April 02, 2023

Today was on, not paying attention, looked up and it was happening. I stood there not able to move from the TV. I have no idea how long. I just remember screaming at the second plane pilot several times, ‘Turn around.’ I thought the he also was so stunned by the first plane to hit that he could not change course.

At work , had the internet on my pc and always kept pc home on Fox News, then the towers popped up on the screen. Ran to my boss’ (owner) office and let him know. He was a retired financier in NYC. Almost saddest day in my life, well at that time anyway.

I lived in the US Mountain time zone at the time and was getting ready for work and my children ready for school. Went in to work and was sent home early.

I was far enough away in S. Jersey that I watched in disbelief as they showed it again and again on the news, unable to wrap my head around such violence. I sit here now, from Nashville TN after our nation’s most recent school shooting just 30 minutes away from my home. A good friend is visiting me next weekend and she wanted to go to The Melting Pot restaurant ‘just like old times’. I had to remind her we couldn’t go there; it has been closed since the Christmas Day bombing in 2020. I am still unable to wrap my head around such violence, though it sometimes seems like a fixture in this crazy world in which we live.

Thankfully There are people like you, Lennie, who make us smile or laugh even if occasionally real-world events like the ones in the coming weeks must interfere with your humor. And the other commentators on this, and other strips, who remind me that there is good in the world.

Mr. Rogers quoted his mother as saying “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Thank you one and all for being helpers. It is kind people like you who make this world a little less scary of a place to be.

Lily

I was driving to the gym. News came on the radio, all flights are grounded, all baseball, and similar stuff is cancelled. What on Earth happened? I turned around and went back home to turn on the tv. About 1/2 hour later, I headed back to the gym with thoughts of “gotta be strong, the world has changed”. They had a tv on the gym floor. I really didn’t have a good workout, too many thoughts.

I was taking my kid to school

As usual we were talking and not paying attention to the radio

Caught something about an airplane hitting a tower, the radio station went to break, and I dropped him off

Heard what was happening on the way home and spent the day glued to CNN

I was getting kids ready for school, one was watching TV with the sound low, and when asked what he was watching, he unwittingly quoted Signs "I don’t know but it’s on every channel. "

I knew something big was up. Just as I was saying “that looks like the World Trade Center on fire”, the first tower fell.

Rest of day was rather surreal.

I was at work, in a kindergarten class. The principal came around to each class to tell the staff individually/quietly. The superintendent decided to send the students home early only because one of the pilots was from town(and had school age kids) and at the time we didn’t know what was going on.

I was on the way to an evidentiary hearing (I was in law enforcement back then, now retired) when NPR gave the first report that “a small plane” had hit one of the Twin Towers. Got to court and was immediately sequestered in a conference room with 3 or 4 other Agents from my agency. No smart phones back then but our pagers got news briefings and all of them started going off at once. Somebody got us a radio so we listened to the news, fully expecting court to be cancelled but it was not.

I testified for an hour or more, all the while wondering what else was happening. Finally got out and another Agent and I caravaned together for the 3 hour ride home. We were talking via radio and commenting about how there were no planes in the sky (we hadn’t heard they were all grounded) and how suddenly there were American flags everywhere. In front of houses, on fence lines, overpasses, etc. that weren’t there when we drove out that morning. And every farmhouse on the highways, and houses in the towns we passed through, seemed to have every single light on.

That’s a day, and a drive, I’ll never forget.

Came in teaching in my music school in Hafnarfjörður, close to Reykjavík and the vice president of the school met me and asked whether I’d heard the news.