Decade 9/11 – covering the attacks and their aftermath. Civil liberties vs. security – a decade of trying to strike a delicate balance. The families of 9/11 – how survivors cope with grief, guilt and life going on. Dave Isay talks about the StoryCorps 9/11 “We Remember” project
Decade 9/11 – covering the attacks and their aftermath
It’s been 10 years since the terror attacks that struck New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania took nearly 3,000 lives. Three months after 9/11, AirTalk broadcast LIVE from New York for a full week, to see how the city was responding. Today, we return for two days of special programming, marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11. We’ll look back at the day that “changed everything” and talk about its lasting impact with survivors, first responders, religious leaders and security experts.
First up, we’re joined by two journalists who covered that unusually beautiful Manhattan morning that turned so quickly into night. Both were caught up in the billowing smoke and falling debris. Both witnessed people plunging off buildings, “swinging their arms and legs, looking down as the street came up at them…hopeless and unhelpable.” Somehow, both managed to get their stories out. How were they able to make sense of the events of 9/11, personally and professionally? How has that informed their reporting and their lives since? What’s the takeaway for the rest of us?
Guests:
John Bussey, Executive Business Editor and Assistant Managing Editor at The Wall Street Journal; Bussey is part of a team at the Wall Street Journal that won a 2002 Pulitzer price in Breaking News Reporting for stories on 9/11
Geraldine Baum, New York Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times; covered the attacks of 9/11
John Bussey (left) and Geraldine Baum (right) in the studio.
Civil liberties vs. security – a decade of trying to strike a delicate balance
Most Americans still remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. They know where they were when they heard that a jet-turned-missile had slammed into the side of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. They’ll never forget the fiery images of the second plane hitting the WTC’s South Tower, a third striking the Pentagon, a fourth crashing in a field in Pennsylvania – and that previously unimaginable finale, when New York’s seemingly indestructible icons fell. But as President George W. Bush said in his final White House address in 2009, “Most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11.” This is true, with one notable exception: the security arena. Yes, we’ve been groped and scanned and inconvenienced at airports. But the attacks also spawned two wars, domestic surveillance, indefinite detention and a massive expansion of national security efforts, largely hidden from view. The blank checks cut to the Department of Homeland Security in the name of preventing future attacks were unprecedented. Lawmakers and security experts on both sides of the aisle argue that these steps were –and are – necessary to keep Americans safe. But critics argue we’ve sacrificed far too many individual rights in this post 9/11 era. And that battle between security and liberty rages on. The questions posed 10 years ago continue to confound us today. Have we traded freedom for security? How effective are these security efforts anyway? How far should we go? And at what cost?
Guests:
Ben Wizner, Litigation Director of the ACLU National Security Project
Dean Reuter, Vice President & Director, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society; Co-Editor (with John Yoo), Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security
Ben Wizner (top) and Dean Reuter (bottom) in the studio.
The families of 9/11 – how survivors cope with grief, guilt and life going on
It’s been said that 9/11 changed everything. And for those who lost loved ones on 9/11, the memories will never completely fade away. Lives and families were shattered in countless ways. Nearly 3,000 children lost parents. Susan Esposito is one of them. On September 11, 2001, Esposito’s father went to work and never came back. “I was Daddy’s little girl,” Esposito says. “I had to get married without him. Raise three children without him. There’s so much he doesn’t know about our lives today.” Post 9/11, Esposito’s faith in the U.S. government was shaken, as was her sense of security. But she managed to find new meaning by helping others who have experienced the loss of a parent. Founding “A Caring Hand,” an organization that provides bereavement services “gave me a place to put my anger and my energy,” she says. “It was better than me hitting someone with a car.”
Lee Ielpi is a retired New York City firefighter. His son Jonathan was one of the 343 firefighters that died at ground zero. Ielpi spent 9 months in the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site. He helped recover remains, including those of his own son. “I then made a commitment,” Ielpi wrote in a blog post, “to help other dads look for their sons. Many, to this day have not been able to find their children.” Despite all the loss, the nation came together after the attacks. And Ielpi co-founded the Tribute WTC Visitor Center to help people remember the love that came out of this tragedy, rather than the hatred and distrust. “We must work together,” he says, “so that these memories do not fade.”
Similarly, Edie Lutnick found that after losing her brother on 9/11, caring for others helped her heal. Edie’s brother Gary was a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street Firm hardest hit by the terrorist strike. 658 of Lutnick’s colleagues died that day. “There is no closure,” she says. “Ten years is a milestone but it’s not an ending.” Esposito, Ielpi and Lutnick join Larry in-studio in New York to talk about the long shadow of 9/11 and the slow journey to find new meaning.
Guests:
Lee Ielpi, retired New York City firefighter who lost his son Jonathan on 9/11; President of the September 11th Families' Association and Co-Founder of the Tribute WTC Visitor Center at ground zero
Edie Lutnick, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund; author of An Unbroken Bond: The Untold Story of How The Cantor Fitzgerald Families Faced the Tragedy of 9/11 and Beyond; her brother Gary Lutnick, who was a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, died on 9/11 along with 657 others
Susan Esposito, Founder of A Caring Hand: The Billy Esposito Foundation, which provides bereavement services and educational opportunities to children that have experienced the loss of a parent; Susan’s father Billy Esposito died on 9/11, he was Vice President and Partner at Cantor Fitzgerald
From left to right, Lee Ielpi, Edie Lutnick and Susan Esposito in studio.
Dave Isay talks about the StoryCorps 9/11 “We Remember” project
For the past 5 years, StoryCorps has worked with the 9/11 Memorial to record at least one remembrance for each of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terrorist attacks. To date, they’ve memorialized 583 individual victims. “We must never forget the lives lost on that day,” says Dave Isay, the founder of StoryCorps. Today, Isay joins us in-studio in New York to share some of these moving stories, through the words of those who loved them most.
Guest:
Dave Isay, Founder of StoryCorps, which is heard nationwide on NPR
Dave Isay in studio.