https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ByJjeJ3mM
As It Happened
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
My boss watched through binoculars out an upper story window of the FlatIron building as a jumper fled the flames of one of the Twin Towers. Soon after, we were told to evacuate the FlatIron. Original cordons were set up at 21st Street, below my office window, but removed to 14th Street by the time I left the FlatIron to rendezvous with my wife in Midtown at the Library entrance lion. Evacuating on foot with tens of thousands of others over the 59th Street Bridge, thousands shoulder to shoulder ducked as one when a fighter jet flew low overhead; no one knew if it was friend or foe. Most did not look back, as I chose to do, to witness the rising spires of smoke.
For weeks, I had the refrain running through my mind, “Oh, God, pride of Man, broken in the dust again.” And the concluding line, “Thy holy mountain be restored, have mercy on that people, Lord. ” (YouTube should have the Quicksilver Messenger Service version, if you’re interested. )