Tuesday, September 11th 2001

To day, I remember Anthony Hawkins. He was a 30 year old maintenance worker with cantor Fitzgerald, from New York City. His friends and family remember Anthony, ("BA" as his friends would call him) as a kind and warm hearted person. He never missed a good party and never came empty handed! I am proud to honor Anthony Hawkins on the 5 year anniversary of September 11th.

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As I remember, I think back to where I was that morning...

I was working the early morning show 5 years ago. We had just finished our last news break for the morning. We were in the process of having our usual post meeting, when all of a sudden we see that the network was breaking in with breaking news.

I stood there looking at a live picture from a skycam pointed at the world trade centers, as they broke in with live coverage. Bryant Gumbel was talking about a supposed plane flying in to one of the buildings. While network was airing this live picture, I see in the corner of the screen another plane about to hit the second tower...

The plane hits the second tower. All I heard was screams coming from the entire newsroom, from myself as well as the network announcer over the air. Never in my life have I seen such a emotional reaction coming from a newsroom, like I did that day. It hit everyone pretty deep inside.

Working in television news, you always have the thought that you've seen and heard everything and nothing can shock you, or tap in to your emotions. Not that day, that day my heart hurt, I was confused and nothing made sense.

Everyone at the news station, we all walked around as if in some type of trance or daze. Trying to collect ourselves and do what we're suppose to do, what we all did best, tell the stories and share the news with the world. It was an amazing sight to see every single person, even the one's who weren't suppose to be at work that day come in to help in any way possible.

We all have our differences, but on that day, we all came together, supporting each other, hugged each other, talking and simply being there to listen.

I live far from New York and the World Trade Centers and I wasn't there that morning. But I think every single American was impacted, each of our lives have been touched and changed forever on that surreal day.

I'm sure each and every one of you has a story about where you were, what you were doing and how you reacted on that day. I'd love to hear about it as we all take time today to remember every single person who's life was lost.