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I first met Art and Scott Powell aka "The Twinzz" in 1987 at UDC. I was working at WDCU JAZZ 90 FM and I met the twins on campus one day. We had our love for great music in common amongst other things. All of us loved music and I used to invite them to come by the radio station when I was there so we could just kick it about life. In between me editing and producing shows, we would just kick it back in studio C about everything, school, you name it.
We had some of the best conversations on music, Jazz, R&B, Pop, Urban AC, women, and life in general. I mean, the conversations were really good. Funny too. We would all crack each other up because I think we had similar senses of humor but theirs was off the hook.
I remember we were all Geminis so when we all talked it was like 6 people talking instead of three. ;)
I really enjoyed it when Art and Scott came by and we would talk. Our music conversations were completely off the hook. We had a lot in common, shared a lot of same views on different topics and they usually had their instruments with them.
I usually would always see them together. Sometimes I might have seen one or the other, Art or Scott, but usually I would always see them together.
One day my sister and I went over to their home, and saw all their cool instruments and even heard them play a little bit. When we found out they went to Duke Ellington The School of the Arts in DC and that we were so close in age, we ended up finding out we knew a lot of the same people from the same schools, and from around the way, etc.
So getting to know Art and Scott was kind of like a reunion of sorts of folks we knew through other friends, etc. and we found out they knew some of our friends too who were in high school in the mid to late 80s.
Years later, one day in the Summer of 2001, I saw the twins together in Silver Spring, MD. It had to have been June or July of 2001. Roughly a month before September 11th. It had been years since I saw either of the twins and to see them together one day all out of the blue was really something.
I called out their names as they were leaving this store we all happened to be in and we all shook hands, and gave pounds and hugs all around. It had been years.
We caught up with each other pretty good that day. I remember that Scott told me he was working at The Pentagon in the IT department. We exchanged numbers and shook hands. We had to catch up again soon. We had to hook up.
I have this little theory that sometimes The Creator will arrange for you to see someone for one last time shortly before they may pass whether you know it or not when you see them this last time. Another reason to cherish folks while they are here when you see them. Go ahead and speak. Tell 'em how you feel. It's OK.
I say so because it has happened to me about 4 or 5 times that I can think of where shortly after I have seen someone I haven't seen in a long time, I find out shortly after that, they passed and made the transition and then I reflect in silence how I got to see them one more time. Sometime it happens, sometimes is doesn't but when it does, I just thank The Lord he let me see them one more time.
On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was at home watching a little of the morning news shows. I remember I was changing channels back and fourth between The Today Show, Good Morning America and The CBS Morning Show. I remember they were interviewing Harry Belafonte on CBS about his new box set called 'The Long Road to Freedom: An Anthology of Black Music' which was released that day when all of the sudden they kind of abruptly ended the interview and cut to the World Trade Center which they kept showing was on fire.
Like many who saw the WTC burning up top like that, and even as they were reporting it in the beginning, they thought it was a small plane that some man had crashed into it by being in the wrong air space.
I watched the terrible events unfold like the rest of the world that day - all day and all night too.
I remember seeing the 2nd plane hit Tower 2 and we all knew at that moment that this was something else. This was intentional. This was war. Whoever it was, it was war to them. I remember thinking to myself as I was hearing the commentary, "That plane looks like it's going to hit the 2nd one." And it did.
I remember wondering to myself, "Why do we even have to have buildings that tall anymore? Why does man continue to need buildings that tall now?" I think I thought this because I recently saw a doc on the world's tallest buildings and man's desire to always go bigger, to go taller.
I remember being speechless that not one, but both buildings came down and came down the way they did. The black smoke. The dust. The people running for their lives on the ground level. The people jumping out of the buildings to their deaths. All of it.
What I remember about that day in DC was that it was a beautiful morning and actually things were kind of slow in the news before any of this happened. It was looking to be a slow news day.
What I also remember was that the energy of that day felt very uneven and unbalanced to me immediately after that second plane hit. Actually, after they showed the first shot of the WTC burning. Something just felt very odd to me even though I kept switching channels and then switching back hoping this would soon settle down and be confined though I wondered at that moment how they would ever fix it - the point of entry, etc.
Surely this would be something that would get under control. Somehow. Right? Maybe helicopters or jets could get up there to spray it down with water and cooling agents. Wait, can they get that high? This is The World Trade Center. How tall is it again? How many stories? How many minutes has it been now? That thing is still burning? It's getting worse? - These were some of my thoughts.
This is when I think I began to feel more concerned and even more worried yet I was still keeping hopeful for the best. I remember looking at the time on my watch and hoping most people hadn't gotten to work yet there that morning.
The energy and vibrations of September 11th, 2001 felt to me like the very natural balance and order of things were somehow out of balance or out of order. It was a very helpless feeling I think that was shared by many.
When we heard about the news that a plane was headed to the White House and then the Capitol and finally The Pentagon things just felt out of control. Things also seemed very unclear.
I couldn't pin my feelings or thoughts on what was the center of this emergency but it just felt like it was all happening at once and there was more to come. It felt like this nation was either under attack by somebody but more than one somebody. Somebodies. Plural, more than one. Obviously, this was organized. I also thought whoever was doing it, even if they weren't professionals, they were slick enough to get through and accomplish at least a series of things so far as the morning was going.
It also made me think how so much of our attention was focused was on New York and DC that something else was about to or could happen in some other part of the country. Was this part I and II of a diversion by whoever this was? - My thoughts.
There's so much I would like to say but all I can say is this for now: I am terribly sorry for all those that lost their lives that day, the families, the workers, everybody. It was just a terrible day in this nation's history.
It was a day to me that didn't have to happen but it did. Maybe it was fated that that day was going to happen anyway.
I just feel so bad about it to this day because so many innocent people died who were just going to work and at work like any other day, or happening to be flying in the air that day like any other day, etc.
I hope something like it never happens again but the experts say it can and probably will and we all know how America has changed since then.
What I also remember was that by that evening, America felt more unified than any other time that I can remember in my entire life. Your party, race or class didn't matter. We were all Americans.
I guess that is the flip side of evil or such evil actions. That so much positivity and unity can come by the same day at the end of the day or later that evening of such a treacherous event.
People that just immediately helped and lost their own lives in doing so, folks who rushed to danger like they did not even thinking of themselves but thinking of others safety and lives first. People who rose to the occasion like they did.
Peace and Blessings to all the people, all the innocent victims of September 11th. The Family Members and Friends of Lost Ones from September 11th. The Firemen. The Policemen. The EMDs. The soldiers at the Pentagon. The construction workers. The office workers. The innocent bystanders. The teachers and students from DC Public Schools on that plane that crashed in Shanksville, PA. To the pilot leroyhomerjr.org who was also on that flight.
For all the people whose names we still haven't heard mentioned yet in the mainstream media who were also heroes. For all the stories we haven't even heard yet 5 years later. The Unsung Heroes, none of the television shows have featured or shown yet and those that they did.
Peace and Blessings to them all.
And Peace and Blessings to my good friend, Scott Powell. Art, we will always remember and honor the memory of your beloved brother Scott. For those of us that had the blessing of meeting you both, Scott will always be in our hearts and thoughts and so will you with our love and support. Peace and Blessings to The Powell Family.
Peace.
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