9/11 Reflections from a consultant, a professor, a webmaster, a TV reporter and a writer

Patrick Anderson, principal, Anderson Economic Group, Lansing, Mich., wants to reconnect with the five other Michigan economists who attended the 2001 NABE Annual Meeting. He’d met with them before but lost touch with several of them and contacted NABE for help. They included Ilhan Geckil, who works with Anderson; Robbie Hayes of Detroit, and Bob Fish, who died (of unrelated causes) in July.

“Very few people from Michigan were at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon on Sept. 11,” Anderson said. “Most people here assume no one locally was affected. I wanted to get together with the Michigan NABE members who were there and in some manner acknowledge the sacrifices of the people who helped get us out.”

In late December 2001, Anderson heard from the New York Police Department that his briefcase and the planner that had been on the bed in his hotel room had been recovered in the rubble. They mailed it to him in a crime bag. “I’ve only opened it twice,” he said “I can’t bear to open it. The planner is almost petrified. It’s crushed and covered with dust.

“I think of [Sept. 11, 2001] every day,” he added. “I see my kids and realize I could be gone, my wife a widow. Every day is a gift from God. It is really easy for me to be appreciative.”

Anderson sent along a copy of a news article about his initial escape, an op-ed he did for the Detroit News on 12/31/2001, and a look back on the first anniversary,

Marshall Vest, whose odyssey from the World Trade Center to his Tucson home included heartwarming details about Wal-Mart employees and a number of other terrific New Yorkers who helped him along the way, says he has been “back to normal” since the 2001 holidays. (The first three months, he admits were tough as he suffered from PTSD).

Vest, a professor of economics and business research at the Eller College of Business, University of Arizona, thinks media coverage of terrorism has been way overdone and that it has held back the economy. “I have come to understand that terrorism on U.S. soil is a very negligible threat. So, I don’t have any problem traveling or flying.” But, he no longer watches TV or headline news, which he thinks is overly sensationalized and does not add to his well-being or understanding of what’s going on. “It’s noise,” he said. “I get my news from the Internet and out of the newspaper where I have the ability to choose what I read.”

Vest says Sept. 11 made him refocus on family, friends and community. “There are things other than work,” he says. “I don’t take myself nearly as seriously as I used to. I'm much more patient with myself and others (with the exception of politicians and the news media). A near miss like that is a chance to reflect on what’s important, and I suspect everyone who was there has done likewise. After a trauma such as 9-11, a person must address the question "who am I now?" For me, I'm happy with who I am and the direction I'm headed, and I am making the most of every day. I treasure family and friends and community and am careful not to take any of that for granted.”

Kathleen Hays, a correspondent for CNN Business News who plans to be at this year’s annual meeting in Atlanta, covered the 2001 NABE annual meeting and provided refuge and support for some NABE members. She reflected on 9/11 in a commentary posted on[CNNmoneyEyeOpener on Sept. 10:
” Two years ago today I was trudging off to attend the annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics. I wanted to chat up a couple of Federal Reserve Bank presidents speaking that morning. I had a great time, saw many economists that I know and speak to regularly, left by noon. Would I return the next morning to hear other economists speak? Even I'm not that nerdy. So I stayed home, went to breakfast with my husband, and returned just in time to turn on the TV and see the flames burning in the first tower at the World Trade Center. As we watched in horror, the second plane hit. Those buildings came tumbling down right in front of the old Vista Hotel, where I had been attending the NABE conference just 24 hours earlier. Thankfully, none of those attending the conference was harmed, though they were in harm's way and felt lucky to escape unscathed, at least physically. Twists of fate, for those there that morning, many more of us not.

Dennis Wooldridge, an Orlando, Fla.-based writer who fled the Marriott with his 86-year-old dad, has been working on a book about the hotel and its occupants on Sept. 11, 2001. Wooldridge has interviewed more than 100 people by email, telephone or in person over the past 18 months. He’s talked to many employees of the hotel, survivors (including several NABE members), family members of the victims, and people associated with Port Authority, evacuation efforts, and FDNY. He’s revisited Ground Zero and met with people who helped him and his dad along the way. He says he’s finished most of the research for the book and has begun writing. “I have a library of information to boil down,” he said.