It's pretty well known that I have an addiction to Youtube. It's probably my number one time waster. Music videos, holiday specials, Wings (all seasons are available) gag reels..You name it, I will waste time watching it on YouTube. Earlier this week, I spent some time searching for a Today show segment that I had seen while I was home on maternity leave. While I was looking for the demonstration of how to make crab carbonara, I stumbled across something infinitely more interesting.
If you do a search of The Today Show on Youtube, you will find, in ten minute pieces, most of the broadcast from September 11, 2001. The beginning of the show (discussing Michael Jordan), the shots of people assembled on the Plaza, and the interview that Matt Lauer was doing at 8:46, and the interruption of that interview at 8:51 when he first mentions a problem downtown. (In case you are wondering, he's interviewing some guy who wrote a book on Howard Hughes) I spent the majority of my child's afternoon nap watching video after video from that day. Having been working three stories below Cascade Plaza in a currency vault when the incidents actually occurred, I had never seen any of this before. Documentary after documentary sure, but never the actual coverage as it happened.
I'm moderately obsessed with 9/11, particularly the World Trade Center. I've watched all the documentaries and every year read every article that runs in the New York Post. To be frank, this obsession bothers me. I'm a normal, well adjusted person, I should not be so interested in one of the biggest tragedies our country has ever seen. So after spending an entire afternoon watching "live" coverage of the day from New York, I had to stop and wonder what might be wrong with me.
My conclusion is nothing. I think the reason I am so interested is that the majority of the people who died that day were doing the same things I do every day. They commuted from a suburb and paused downstairs for coffee. They went to their desks and checked the futures on CNBC. They answered emails and returned phone calls. When the first plane hit, was a MetLife staffer on hold trying to find accumulated cash values of a VUL policy? Was a Cantor Fitz associate trying to track down a missing trade blotter? I don't think I am so much obsessed with these unfortunate people as that I identify with them. Safety forces around the country cried at the loss of their firefighter and police brethren, it is only normal that I feel the same towards my trader/ broker/administrator brethren.
I feel better now that I have sorted this out. And will feel much better if someone manages to get into my Youtube account!
