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September 11, 2001 Memories from inside the walls A day that was burned into the memory of most if not all Americans. I remember I received a call in the Lassen Unit Building #6 (Gym) office. The Building #6 observation Officer was on the phone. He told me I needed to go out and watch the inmates TV in the dayroom. He said a passenger plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. I told my partner and we went out to see what was happening. We watched as the tower burned. We watched as the second tower was hit and the video was shown. We continued to watch whenever we could between doing our duties. I watched as the towers collapsed. The Pentagon was hit. Some of these occurrences were not in real-time the second tower had already been hit by the time I started watching. But by the time I saw the Towers collapse it was all in real-time full color. I watched as more than 3200 people died. The dayroom in building #6 was much quieter than normal; even the inmates were disturbed from their number one concern, themselves (well most of them anyway). Over the following days 1 or 2 inmates were placed in Protective Custody for agreeing with these attacks out loud. Many inmates felt we should find the terrorists and kill them. I had a hard time listening to some of these inmates. They had never given one minute of their life in defense of their fellow man. Though I rarely read the central files of inmates. I knew some of these inmates talking of justice for the attack were guilty of the most heinous of crimes. Some were in for Murder, rape, assault and child molestation. Some stated they would go to war against the perpetrators, these convicted men who prey upon their own society. Some realized I did not take their assertions seriously and asked why. I told them I did not believe they had the guts to stand on the front lines of war. That I did not feel they could understand the principles that make the difference between a warrior and a murderer. That they were not capable of giving the most precious gift they had “Their Life”. Being a criminal is rarely a haphazard affair. The average convicted felon has committed 17 crimes before he is caught. That does not mean he is convicted when he is finally caught. The average felon is self-centered, greedy and looking for self-gratification. These are not the qualities that are found in the average Firefighter, Policeman or Warrior.
I will remember to the day I die the events of September 11, 2001. For those who lost their loved ones, From a witness of the tragedy. Richard 9/3/02 |