The Graduate Baruchian

WTC Badge for John "Lem" Morrison

by Lemuel Morrison, MBA 2012

The Spiegelman-Mouly black- on-black ghost cover still sits on my bookshelf.  It still sums up how I feel this time of year and especially this go around. My recollections of the day are pedestrian and luckily I had no meetings in Tower 1 that day. Mercifully, all of the colleagues I knew in the towers made it out.

I was working on West 26th street at the time with a north-facing window.  A plane roared by the Empire State Building and I stood up in my office and shouted.  I felt a little silly for about 5 minutes until WNYC switched to an announcement.  I didn’t need to listen.  I knew.  From the roof I could clearly see this was an attack.  That was the first thought.  The second was what the Bush administration would do to our country in seeking vengeance.  I wasn’t wrong on either count.

Like so many people, I wanted to help and many rushed to Ground Zero. The outpouring was overwhelming and actually caused a bit of crisis on its own. Well meaning, but cavalier cowboys rolling into town to be heroes sometimes caused more problems than they solved.  Through a professional organization, GISMO, I had the opportunity to lend my efforts with data manipulation and map generation of the site. Focus and collaboration was paramount at the time.  Qualities in short supply these days.

As a part of my introspection, I want to be far from any memorials or commemorations. I want to be still and quiet — to wonder what could’ve been, what should’ve been — to pay my respects in my own simple way.  Through all the cost of human life and treasure, it’s the fear-mongering-over-securitized-liberty-sapping mania gripping this country ever since that is the worst loss of all.