09/12/2026
September 11, 2001: A Day We Will Never Forget
I was in Los Angeles on September 11, 2001. I woke up very early to the sound of Katie Couric on The Today Show. I will never forget that moment.
Those planes. Those towers. The unbelievable images on television.
I immediately called my parents in San Francisco and woke them up to tell them what was happening. It was terrifying because, in those first hours, we simply did not know what would happen next.
One of my best friends was in New York on business that morning. For hours, we could not get in touch with him. The fear was overwhelming. Thankfully, he was okay.
But my business partner had many friends who worked in the Towers. Those friends died that day. The loss was devastating.
Even though I was thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, it felt incredibly close. It was our country. It was all of us.It felt as if the world had suddenly stopped.
And then something remarkable happened.
Americans came together.
Flags appeared everywhere—on cars, homes, businesses and streets. For weeks, there was a sense of unity that I had never experienced before and have rarely seen since. We were frightened, grieving and uncertain, but we were also together.
September 11, 2001, will forever be one for the history books—not only because of the enormous loss of life, but because of the resilience of the American people.
We remember the lives we lost. We remember the families who were changed forever. And we remember what it felt like when, for a brief moment, a divided country stood together as one.
