By Jim Toes, President and CEO, STA
Growing up the son of an NYPD Captain, people often said, “You must have great stories from your Dad being a cop.” My reply was, and still is, “Not really.” In 37 years on the job, my Father seldom told us stories or shared what any particular day had been like. I used to think the children of dentists and accountants heard more about their fathers’ work and had more stories than I ever did about mine.
That silence lasted a long time. It wasn’t until after he retired that he would, on occasion, talk about his experiences. Once, at the kitchen table over lunch, he recalled an incident from very early in his career: a car accident on the FDR in the dead of night. He and his partner were first on the scene. A young woman passenger was badly injured, and, as was typical then, they put her in the patrol car and raced to the hospital rather than wait for an ambulance. As he walked through the story in careful detail, he began to stare off, and a blank look settled on his face. The story did not have a happy ending. The woman who lay across my Father’s lap in the back seat died in his arms before they reached the hospital.
That had happened nearly forty years earlier. Sitting at the table with him, you would have thought it happened that morning. Watching him that day taught me something I have never forgotten. Trauma is nasty. It leaves scars, physical and mental. It can be treated so that it does not rule our days, but it never leaves. It has a wicked way of making itself felt again and again.
This Friday marks the 25th anniversary of September 11th. The traumas so many of us still carry from that day will pay us a visit. From Maine to California, Chicago to Dallas, our nation and our industry will be taken back to those hours. We will not merely remember where we were or who we were with. We will feel again, on a deep level, what we felt that day: confusion, disbelief, fear, anger, and a deep, soul-crushing sadness.
What are we to do with that? There is no single remedy that can help all of us cope. Each of us has to find our own way with those emotions.
As we remember those we lost and what was taken from us, let us also remember what was given to us: a sharper appreciation for the people in our lives.
That appreciation is especially true in our business. Our industry is unlike any other. We travel coast to coast as a matter of course. We are highly connected and share a common bond. Those ties enrich us and let us feel events – tragic and joyful – that happen hundreds of miles from home as if they happened next door. In that way, we see and experience the fullness of our nation.
So on this 25th anniversary, let us remember all those who have gone before us, their families and friends. And let us never forget September 11, 2001.
