“Proud to be an American”
by Kathryn Ross, photo from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum
It doesn’t seem possible that 23 years have passed since the country watched two airplanes slam into the World Trade Center and the crowd running down a New York Street in the midst of a gray cloud.
I remember sitting in the newsroom of the Daily Reporter that morning with my back to the television, which for some reason was on. It wasn’t usually turned on before deadline. My niece Heather (Matta) Vogel was sitting at her desk, kitty-corner from me, where she was laying out the day’s stories. John Anderson, the Editor was sitting to my right at his editorial corner desk.
With a little alarm in her voice, Heather announced, “A plane just hit the World Trade Center.”
I turned around to watch the replay. I, like so many others had no idea what that would mean in the days to come, not only to the country, but also to Wellsville and Andover.
After the second and third and fourth crashes, reality began to sink in. The United States, long protected from the violence in Europe and Asia by two oceans, had been attacked on our own homeland. It was this generation’s Pearl Harbor.
With the devastation, the collapse of buildings, loss of life and bravery in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and in rural Shanksville, Pa., (so much like this area) Wellsville and the county showed their true colors. For a few days there were no Republicans or Democrats, no Young vs. Old, no Us vs. Them. Everyone was an American.
Within hours it was apparent, fire fighters, police and other first responders in New York City were going to need help, clawing and pawing through the rubble of the once iconic buildings to find survivors, and recover bodies. Things began to happen here. That day an emergency vehicle from one of our northern towns headed for the city. A few days later other local first responders travelled to the site. The Arc was called on to ramp up production of its identification kits. Volunteers helped pack them in the firehall and transport them to the airport. Governor George Pataki sent his plane to pick them up. Within days, the late Kath Buffington, of the County’s Traffic Safety Board, began to organize a collection drive to gather the items the responders would need – the newspaper office was a drop off site as soap, gloves, toothpaste and more were donated. The local Red Cross began to take donations that would be sent directly to the City. Wayne Grant of Andover, a Lion, a village official and firefighter began a drive to collect funds to send giant American flags from Allegany County to the stricken areas, to show the county’s support. My crew and I had ended our Music On the Lawn season a week earlier, but, we organized another concert to raise funds and come together.
The bands and soloists played for free. Hundreds gathered on the Library lawn, Grant had a flag displayed by a color guard on the steps. And I remember my lifelong friend Gail (Duke) Allen and myself, standing arm and arm, tears streaming down our faces as we sang along with the crowd the song, “Proud To Be An American” while Zoar and the other performers played. The crowd pressed over $2,000 in checks and dollar bills into our old, black, top hat festooned with red, white and blue carnations. The next day I proudly handed it over to the Red Cross.
Over the months of that very warm and unseasonably sunny winter I travelled with Buffington, Deb Aumick and others to Ground Zero several times, to deliver the items that had been collected, doughnuts and cider and to cook pancakes garnished with local maple syrup to and for the volunteers. We were escorted into the Ground Zero hole. We visited fire departments and the morgue where doctors were trying to identify the bodies and parts that were being retrieved. We saw the fencing covered with photos and messages to those who never came home, a courier’s charred bike still chained to a post, and the destruction of a church. Driving away from the city after dark one night, we saw two columns of blue light reaching into the sky where the towers had once stood.
That Spring, Grant hired a bus, and we travelled to NYC, Shanksville and the Pentagon to deliver the flags. What I remember most about that day was how similar rural Shanksville was to Wellsville. I wondered how we would have responded. I wondered what would happen to the deep scar in the field where Flight 93 had plunged from the sky. Today the site is a fitting memorial to those 40 passengers and crew who sacrificed their lives.
What I remember most about those days, is what I felt when I stood on the Library lawn with Gail. I was “Proud To Be an American.” As corny, naïve and simplistic as that may sound to many today, I still am. So, in this troubled time, with the 2024 Presidential Election looming, I want to urge everyone to remember those days of infamy and camaraderie, and to exercise our fundamental right as an American. Vote.
(Editors note, John Anderson was a Olean Times Herald Allegany County editor in 2001. Neal Simon was the editor of the Wellsville Daily Reporter on September 11, 2001. Heather Vogel was a sports reporter at the time, Heather Harrington was a newsroom reporter. Also, Arc is Allegany Arc, now known as the Arc of Allegany-Steuben)
