Final Podcast

On 9/11, the speaker's father was working near the Pentagon and saw smoke coming from it. He initially didn't understand what was happening until he saw his coworkers rushing to pack up and leave. They were told to evacuate DC and all communication shut down. The father felt the impact of 9/11 and questioned the security of the country. He felt patriotism after hearing President Bush's speech. It took a couple of days for things to stabilize, and the father now teaches his children to love and be proud of the United States. Hello, I am with my very special guest, my father, who I have the honor to interview on my 9-11 project. So if you would like to say hello, dad. Hi guys. Okay. So basically, I'm just going to ask from the first hour you woke up to the very hour you fell asleep. So what do you recall on the day of 9-11? Well, 9-11 in 2001, right? For us, it was a regular day. We wake up, we're ready to get to work. I did arrive to my job site. And by the way, my job site was really, really close to the Potomac River. So that location allowed me to see the pentagon from the job site where I was. And I remember that everything was regular, a normal day, until it was probably around 8 o'clock, something like that. I don't remember too much, but I did receive the call from my boss asking me if I can see the pentagon from the house where I was working. And I approached to the window and I started to see that from the pentagon, there was smoke that is coming out. And my boss started to talk to me with a tone of voice with like a panic, like he was in some difficult circumstances and telling me that it was impossible to come into the Washington D.C. because I was in D.C. And then he started telling me that we are under attack. But still, I didn't get it, I didn't understand what he's talking about. But when I came out from the house, because I was working in the townhouse, when I came out in the townhouse, I started to see all the workers start to running, rushing south to packing all the tools and everything that they have inside of the vans that work, and all the radios in each vehicle, it was saying the same thing, I mean, it was the news in every single truck. And they started to tell me that the job site was closed, we need to go back home. But I didn't find my workers, but it was under my management. So I went to looking for them, and they had the radio, a full-volume system music, so they didn't know what's going on, until I turned off the radio and told them that we are under attack. But still, we didn't know what kind of attack are we talking about. And when we realized that we need to leave the job site, it was when we started to hear a lot of car police sirens and everything, I mean, fire department, and we started to see the jet fighters flying over the DC. Yeah, it was kind of exciting, but at the same time, we didn't know what's going on. Right, you had no idea. No idea at all. And when we leave that job site, we start to see a lot of police telling us, evacuate DC, and showing us the way how to get out of DC. So I was trying to be in contact with my wife. I called her by phone, and it was like a two-minute, just, hello, how are you, are you okay, yes, I'm going home. And all the cell phones shut down, all communication, it was shut down. So we understand that the only one who has the communication, the radios or cell phones, or any kind of communication, was the government, it's obviously for security purposes. So when I get home, and we start to see the videos, I mean, I still, after all many years that they already happened, it's a big impact for me, because when we're coming from a country where we had a civil war, and we're coming here to the United States, and we think that we have security, especially for our kids, under the one society, that they will protect the kids, and we received that kind of impact of 9-11, it was, the first idea that came out into my mind was, well, if it's not here, where we are supposed to be, in the most powerful country, where we can have security, what else, I mean, and that was like a ghost surrounding us until we let the news tell us what's going on, and then we watched the speech from the president. From Bush, right? Yes, when he recalled the patriotism of this country, I guess that was the only way how we can be united in this country. I know a lot of patriotism came out after the speech of the president, and I guess that was the moment when I started to feel the patriotism in myself for this country, and the love of this country. Well, the next day, I mean, we didn't know what's going on, we didn't know what's happening, what was happening, because it was like a two days that we didn't go to work until everything is stabilized, and it was a difficult circumstance for us. 9-11 changed our life, 9-11 changed the whole system, 9-11 defined in which side of this society you want to be, and technically, and definitely, and clearly, you need to be in the side where is the right for the community, for the citizen, for the citizen of this country, and I guess since that moment, I've always been trying to teach my kids the love that they need to have for this country, and how much we need to be proud to be citizens of the United States. Wow, that was wonderful, Dad. Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. All right, well, that's about enough time that we have for right now. If there's anything you want to say, you can say it now, or forever hold your peace. No, nothing, and I'm telling you guys, this is a great country that we need to defend them, defend this country. I mean, in every trench, means in our studies, in our society, in our neighborhood, in our daily basis, when we sing the national anthem, when we see the flag, when we see all the people, all the soldiers, all the people who give them life for us, and like they say, freedom is not free. I mean, yeah, it's not free. I mean, somebody else paid with their life to give us the freedom that we have, and we need to be really proud to be part of this country. All right, thank you so much, Dad. You're welcome. All right. All right, guys. See you later, I guess.