By Tom Benner
Sept. 11, 2001, was going to be crazy day for me, no matter what. Yesterday’s horror at the Boston Marathon brought me back to that time, and reminds me of the unfinished business of that day.
At the time I normally went to work at the press gallery of the Massachusetts State House, where I served as bureau chief for a daily newspaper. But on Sept. 11, I was scheduled to go to the paper’s main newsroom, where I was filling in for the vacationing editorial page editor.
Then, that evening, I would shift back into reporter’s mode and cover that day’s primary election to nominate a replacement for a recently deceased congressman from Boston. The election results wouldn’t come in until 10 pm or later, so it was going to be a long day.
I remember looking in the bedroom mirror, tying my tie and about to step out for my drive to the newsroom, when a radio reporter with scant information said something about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. This was 10 minutes or so before 9 am, it had just happened, and there was no way to gauge the enormity of what was to come. Continue reading
Tom Benner Reports 