Nat Geo's "9/11: One Day in America" Focuses on Random Acts of Kindness in the Midst of Evil

Every year that day carries with it the heaviness of honoring the 2997 victims the terrorists killed Since the day is etched into our collective memory perhaps even into a collective PTSD it39s legitimate to ask why watch 911 One Day in America The sixpart documentary aired over four consecutive nights on National Geographic is currently streaming on Hulu and will reair tonight Granted this is a profoundly upsetting production but it is also one of the most important Despite knowing all about the tragedy it39s certain to leave viewers sobbing So why dedicate the time and what can you learnThat39s a question David Glover executive producer and cofounder of 72 Films which made the film in collaboration with the 911 Memorial and Museum mulled over with his team as they set out to make this three years ago His team found footage of people during and just after the attacksquotThere39s a possibility of looking at an event almost like a God39seye view on an eventquot Glover said speaking from London quotYou are trying to piece together all the different stories that kind of crisscross each otherquotThe nearly seven hours dissect the day chronologically beginning with that earthshattering moment when the first plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 846 am The attack continued with the South Tower struck at 903 am At 937 am the Pentagon was hit At 959 the South Tower collapsed At 1003 another plane crashed near Shanksville PA after passengers fought the hijackers and at 1028 am the North Tower collapsed But it goes beyond the infamous 102 minutes that changed the worldWhile the film shows people in shock coated in the remains of the buildings they escaped it also shows them today as they recall who helped them and whom they helped This reveals an aspect of the event that we don39t often consider when we think of the terrorist attacks Random acts of kindness were everywherequotWe often say people find out who they are when they39re really testedquot Glover explained quotI suppose that anyone could sort of talk a good game about who they are If push came to shove morally what would we do People can say that they39re this or that but you only really find out when they39re tested I suppose I think that 911 tested people in horrendous and very very intense ways but I knew enough about 911 to know that in those moments some of the very best of humanity was shining throughquotAmong those whose humanity shone so brightly are Kathy Comerford of Long Island and Ron Clifford of New Jersey That morning Comerford was running a Morgan Stanley meeting on the 70th floor of the South Tower When the first plane hit people in the South Tower started to evacuate only to be told to return to work It was just an accident in the other building went the initial reportsComerford refused The head of her company39s security had trained the employees well He was certain another attack would happen basing this presumption on the World Trade Center bombing of Feb 26 1993 when six were killedThat security executive died helping others on 911On Comerford39s descent she had stopped on the 44th floor just as the second plane hit quotI was blown out of my shoesquot she said quotI dislocated my shoulder and hurt my neck but you don39t feel it at that point All I kept thinking of was the movie Die Hard where they shoot out all the glass and he39s walking on the broken glass and his feet are all cut and I kept thinking 39I gotta find my shoes because I can39t go down all these stairs if my feet are bleeding39 So I did get up and I found my shoesquot She also found a large cup of ice and figured that it would come in handyComerford continued walking down Along the way she encountered a woman having an asthma attack who said she could not go on A mother of three Comerford had an inhaler in her purse She told the woman to take some breaths and keep goingAs firefighters ran upstairs 343 FDNY heroes would perish that day Comerford kept going down giving out ice along the way She recalls a man with prosthetic legs had also given up and Comerford watched two men carry him down hundreds of stairs Once on the street she helped a woman into an ambulance and went to the hospital with her There she met a man who had no idea how to get home to Long Island She knew she would figure it out and told him to stick with herThe next day Comerford attended Mass twice at her kids39 parochial and Catholic high schools to show them she survived and that she was okay albeit in a brace and a bit worse for the wearquotI went back to the city and I worked because my philosophy was on not letting those terrorists winquot she said when interviewedCatholic prayers were also the solace Ron Clifford offered to a stranger Raised in Ireland Clifford was an architect who fell in love with the Twin Towers the first time he saw them just a few years after their 1973 completionWhenever people visited New York Clifford took them to experience the majesty of those buildings On the morning of September 11 he had a meeting at the Marriott the hotel that was nestled between the towers He took the ferry from his New Jersey home and arrived early because it was an important meeting and because he so loved being thereClifford felt a rumble And just after a severely burned woman a fireball of jet fuel had engulfed her staggered into the lobby where he wasThe plane that hit the North Tower had Clifford39s close friend on it She was heading to Los Angeles for a vacation with Clifford39s sister and niece The second plane crashed into the South Tower while Clifford was saying a Hail Mary and the Lord39s Prayer with Jennieann Maffeo the woman who was so badly burnedOn board were his sister and fouryearold nieceOnce Clifford saw Maffeo into an ambulance shown in the series since it amazingly tracked down everyone on that day he eventually made it home again on a ferry He looked across the river aghast at the fires and ruins of the buildings he so loved Once home his brotherinlaw called to tell him what had happened Clifford found himself on his knees cryingHe visited Maffeo in the hospital where she clung to life for 41 days before dying as a result of the terrorist attack As he reflects on that day and his kindnesses to a stranger Clifford says very quietly quotThat39s just what you do that39s what a human being doesquotHaving spent three years working on this and having returned to New York City the moment he could just after the attacks Glover remains extremely touched by these random acts of kindnessquotThey39re sort of inspirational truths about human naturequot Glover said quotNot just New Yorkers but definitely New Yorkers amp8230 the whole human race can be proud of what people did that day One of things I love about New York is it39s incredibly multicultural If you had to pick a city to represent the human race New York would be a pretty good choicequotThis horrible attack happened to New Yorkers and we get to see all different kinds of people respond and all different kinds of people show unbelievable capacity for kindness and altruism often risking their own lives to save others both the professionals and the other peoplequot Glover concluded quotUltimately they are very very uplifting storiesquotClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Nat Geo's "9/11: One Day in America" Focuses on Random Acts of Kindness in the Midst of Evil

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Jacqueline Cutler

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Nat Geo's "9/11: One Day in America" Focuses on Random Acts of Kindness in the Midst of Evil

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