Where Were You?? 9/11 Version

Good morning, Cadre family. What a beautiful, beautiful fall 911 2023 day that we have in front of us. I'm really excited to talk to you about kind of my journey on this day and what it looked like for me. And I'm sure that we all remember exactly where we were, what we were doing, who we were with, what that looked like, probably watching the news, all the other things that were going on when this day happened for you, wherever that was in the United States or outside of our country. But I remember exactly where I was.

I was at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I was a 20 year old sophomore, and I was just getting out of a law school class, intro to criminology, intro to crim law. And our professor came in, and we were supposed to have, like, a mini quiz. And our professor came in, Mister Greenlee. I remember him. Doc Greenlee. Where? So we were walking in, and we're walking into a room. Everybody sat down. Everybody was there. And he just kind of came on with, he came on, came into the room, into the classroom, which is kind of like you could just tell he was flustered.

And all he said to us was this. He walked in, he walked up in the front. He said, I just got word from friends of mine out in New York City that something really, really bad has happened. And his cell phone rang. While he said that, he said, I just got word that something really, really bad happened, and you all need to get out of here, and you all need to get home, and you all need to hug somebody you love. And that's what he said. And so all of us left. All of us left out of there. We didn't know what was going on.

None of us had a clue, right? Social media didn't exist. None of those things were relevant. And so we had to do what we always do to found the news, find the news, right? com, it would just take forever and ever and ever to load. And not only did it take forever to load, you're always about a day and a half to two days behind. You know, that, that stage of the game and on the Internet, right, to load all that information up and build it to where it needs to get, get to. I mean, h***, we were still running, I think, on 56k, but so we all decided, we're like, let's go.

Let's meet up at our buddy's house that we, you know, he was renting, obviously. And so his name is John Ribich. So I'm like, john, let's head to your house, man. Let's get to your house and let's watch to see what's going on. So John Ribich, myself, Matt Lobeck and Dugan Mogenson got together for the better part of the next. And I'm not kidding when I say this, 24 to 36 straight hours, right? I remember getting back to the house and having Channel Four, channel 5911. I think we listened to Brokaw forever.

We even made jokes during the moment because we just didn't know the magnitude of everything at the site. Like, this guy's been literally behind here for 1224, 36 hours. How does he even urinate? Because he just non stop and just kept producing the news for us real time. And then it was first, you know, you know, the first tower and then second tower, and then, of course, flight 93 and then the Pentagon and, you know, just, just all the things that happened. And, you know, where I'm. Where I just want to tell you, like, where I'm at after 22 years is, you know, two.

Two wrongs don't make a right. And what do I. What do I mean by that? What do I want to elaborate on that for? Is, um, you know, at that, at that time, I was, you know, 20 ish, 21 years old. And a lot of my friends, you know, there was this unbelievable opportunity to be part of the guards or the army where you would have a lot of your schooling paid for so long as all you had to do was do like they called it, pt weekends. So if you did like two weekends a quarter or three weekends a quarter, don't quote me on that.

You know, the guards in the army would pay for a lot of your school. And so a lot of my buddies, you know, would always go off and do training and drill and all that so they could continue to have their schooling paid for. Well, that being said, none of them probably knew the magnitude of what this moment was going to be and what's going to look like for the rest of their lives. And a lot of my friends that were 19, 2021, that now we're going to go off to war and head over to Afghanistan and Iraq and, you know, be in a decades, decades long war, where now we saw, you know, a lot of the ramifications of war for them and what that looks like in alcoholism, addiction, substance problems, PTSD, suicide.

You know, our military members, you know, that went across and fought that war have been through so much, through so, so, so much. When you. So when you see those early to mid forties you know, whether they're police officers, military members, firefighters, you name it, most of them were influenced by this moment and, you know, to help support or to fight the fight. And, you know, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for those individuals that did. And I hope that, you know, that, yeah, you know, we're, we're here for you at any given time.

We love you to those, to those first firefighters and those policemen, etcetera. You know, I always, I always put myself in those shoes in that. In that dire moment, right? And when you see those things happening, you know, are you the one that's gonna go run right in? Are you the one that's gonna run away? You know, and I just would always hope that I would always be the one to run right in and help. And I think you gotta question yourself, you know, on that faith part of it. Like, are you running away from the problem?

Are you running right into it? You're running into the fire. And those firefighters and those firemen that just ran straight in, you know, leaving their families behind, leaving, you know, everything behind and making sure they can do whatever they can to help. And all those firefighters that lost their lives on that day, the policemen, etcetera, first responders, and then, of course, all the civilians that lost their lives. You know, it's just 22 years ago, it's just still so enriched and sketched in your brain of what exactly you felt that day.

And I just. I felt scared, I felt fear, I felt anger, I felt almost hate. And I don't know why, but I was so upset in the moment for what was obviously ensuing on american soul and New York and beyond, and it just led to. It was so scary. Risa just said, I'll never forget where I was. It was so scary. That's exactly right. Just talking about that fear and all the emotions that kind of went with it. And I just remember sitting with my buddies for the duration of the day we played, because really they went basically non stop commercial free for hours and hours and hours, if not d*** near days, where we would play foosball.

We'd play foosball and we'd come right back over and we'd watch to see the updates. We'd play foosball. We'd do it over and over and over again. And we just watched to see what was happening next and what was happening, what was going on. And, you know, so again, I just want to say this morning, I'm sure this will be. Everybody on earth knew exactly where they were when they were why they were, how it was, what you were up to that day. And, you know, that was the same for me. And I just found solace in my friendships.

I found solace in the individuals I loved and cared about and connected with and talked to over the phone. And I just remember this cycle of calls with my mom and my dad and my brother and just trying to figure out, you know, what's going on and why is it happening. And you're just, you're just so clueless for a while. And then, of course, you know, everybody was trying to figure out who did it and, you know, who and trying to blame because everybody wanted to find out, you know, who's behind this, which I completely understand.

And then ultimately led to us, you know, going into a really, really decades long war, you know, to try to eradicate, for lack of better words, terrorism, to be able to try to put a stop to terrorism. And, you know, the reality is that we haven't made much dent there. We haven't really made much dent when it comes to, you know, al Qaeda and everything else. So I'm not going to go political on the bit, but all I'm saying is do two wrongs, you know, make a right there. But needless to say, we are in support fully of those individuals that risk their lives and do continue to risk their lives every day for our freedom.

And thank you so much to our armed forces, the police departments, the firefighting individuals that go. And my neighbor is a firefighter. So I just want a big shout out to Tom Ballas. Tom, we love you. We love you so much. We know exactly what you talk about every time, about putting yourself right in the midst of it because that's what you sign up for. And so again, we say thank you. And so thank you for all those, our military men, our firefighters, our emergency responders that risk their lives every day for us.

So at the end of the day, I'm interested to hear, if you listen to this, if you would put it in the comments tab, you know, where you were and you know, what this made you feel when you were going through 911 on this day. I make it, my memorialization every year is I watch everything I possibly can the day before, the day of and the day after, you know, just continue to watch everything. And I want to watch it back real time and make sure that I continue to feel what I felt. I think that's okay.

And I think that's okay to feel. And then last but not least, there's an individual that was in President Bush's cabinet that does a complete retweet of his day, exactly the day and where he was every minute of all of 911 and what transpired. I can't remember who it is, but if you probably search it in Twitter, you're gonna be able to find it right away. And you can literally watch from this moment on because if you think about it, 914, we're almost literally to the minutes here. Things started to unfold 22 years ago.

So was working. I was working at a restaurant in Maine surrounded by some of my best friends that I'm still friends with today. Amazing. Thank you, Risa, for sharing. But yeah, if anybody else watches this post, you know, right now live, please post in the comment feed. You know, where you were, who you were with, what this made you feel. That would be amazing. But yeah, this day just brings, I think, so much emotion back for a lot of individuals, which it should. So, yeah, kind of coming a little solace today and a little emotional because it's just something that all this never forget.

There's like one of these like seven moments in my life where I'll never forget where I was and how it made me feel. And naturally, 911 was one of them. Have an amazing, amazing day, you guys. Remember this day and remember it for those individuals that lost their lives, remember this day. For those individuals that can continue to put themselves in harm way for us, our freedom, whether it's emergencies or always. So take care of you all. Have an amazing day. Bye bye now.