Michael Dixon’s first dispatch, published ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11. He was 23 years old and living in Indianapolis when the planes hit the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001. This is what he remembers of that day, and what he makes of the twenty-five years since.
Those were savage and exciting days, my early 20s.
I had just come out of a long term relationship with a girl that I had decided I wanted to spend my life with. I went on a two week bender, spent $800+ on alcohol, smokes, and strippers. That 2 weeks culminated on my 23rd birthday, at a local Eastside bar aptly named “Hard Day’s Night”. That night, unbeknownst to me, began the relationship with the wonderful woman I now call my wife. That was in June.
By September, we were officially dating. I used to go over to her apartment and hang out for a few hours after she got home from work, and when she went to bed, I would head to the bar. On Monday, September 10th, that’s exactly what I did. Closed down the bar, went and picked up some late night grindage, and went home.
I woke up to the phone ringing. I remember thinking “who the fuck keeps calling?”. Obviously I didn’t answer the first couple of times and we didn’t have caller ID. I finally picked up and it was my stepfather. I could hear the concern in his voice. He said “Hey, I know you’re sleeping, but can you turn on the news and see what’s going on, we are getting reports that a plane hit one of the World Trade Center buildings.” I bolted up and fumbled for my remote. As soon as the TV came on, there it was, a massive flaming hole inside the first tower.
To give a little background, my stepfather worked for MEPS as a civilian. For those who don’t know, MEPS is where we go to get into the military. Here in Indiana, it is located in the same building as DFAS, which is the payment services for the entire military. Which is considered a high value target to our enemies.
So, I describe to him the scene. Relay what the talking heads are saying. Mid-sentence, I watched the second plane hit. I remember saying “Holy shit, a second plane just hit the other tower, we’re under attack. You guys need to get the fuck out of that building.”
The next part is the thing I regret. I fell back to sleep. I knew that Melissa was probably still asleep, so I didn’t want to call her and wake her up. Funny enough, she called and woke me up a little bit later. She says “Are you sleeping, I can’t believe you’re not watching the news.” I explained what had happened and that I had indeed nodded off. I looked over at the TV and realized that the towers were no longer visible. I said “Where’s all that smoke coming from?” She says “That’s not smoke, the towers fell.” I remember going into some diatribe about how we were at war, I thought it was Al-Qaeda, and things were going to get bad. Those who know me will tell you, I am a news whore. I didn’t turn off my shit for the next month. Talk radio in the car, I even took a TV with me to work.
That day though, I had to drive into downtown Indy to go to class, which I was surprised they didn’t cancel. It was a ghost town. It literally felt like a scene out of I Am Legend. A few cars, no buses, no planes overhead. Incredibly surreal.
At the time, I was taking a Music of Jimi Hendrix class. Billy Cox, from Band of Gypsies, was supposed to come up from Memphis, to speak to the class. He was unable to fly due to all flights being canceled. He did come up on that Thursday though. Needless to say, the classes were just therapy sessions that day.
This was my generation’s Pearl Harbor. It changed us, as a nation.
We were all super patriotic for a time afterwards. We came together. Unfortunately, that was short lived. We spent the next 20 years fighting the boogeyman. We underestimated an enemy that we thought we could easily control. Looking back on it, going into Afghanistan made sense, but Iraq? I have always been in the camp that we should have never gone into Iraq, all we did was destabilize the region.
Twenty-Five Years On
So, let’s fast forward to today. We are in a new conflict with Iran, for a bullshit pretense. Bad decisions again. We already have lost some of my brothers and sisters in arms. We have no exit strategy. We clearly haven’t learned anything from the last 25 years.
25 years… we are more divided than ever before. It feels like we have lost our way. This administration is damaging our reputation, our relationships, our place in this world. I can only hope that the next administration can clean up this mess.
25 years.