COLD SPRING -- Last month, United States Senator Charles Schumer held a press conference on boating in the river town. When asked about the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, he shared his memories of that day with reporters.
"I was in Washington and I was in the gym," Schumer recalled. "Somebody said come over here look at the TV. A plane had hit the World Trade Center but every one of us like most people thought it might've been a little commuter plane that hit it by accident. Then as I was changing I was watching the TV and I saw another plane hit the second tower so immediately I knew there was trouble."
Like many New Yorkers, Schumer's thought's immediately turned to the safety of his family. "My first instinct was to call my wife who worked downtown right near the World Trade Center but even worse my daughter went to Stuyvesant High School, which is very close to the twin towers so I was scared to death. It was just awful."
The next day Schumer flew to New York with then-Senator Hillary Clinton to survey the World Trade Center site.
"It was one of the experiences I think of every day - the smell of death in the air, the smoldering heaps of the World Trade Center, but the thing that stuck with me the most there were literally hundreds of people holding up signs saying 'have you seen my daughter Rachel?' or 'have you seen my father Bill?' No one knew who was alive and who wasn't."
Schumer said he continues to pay tribute to those who lost their lives that day. "On 9/12 I called on Americans to wear the flag (pin) and I wore this flag every day since 9/11 and God willing I'll wear it every day for the rest of my life in memory of those who were lost and what happened."
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