9/11 ---- Our Unimportant Acts May Have Significant Consequences

       There are times when we are not always aware of the importance of our own words.  In the early 1980s I worked in New York City in the World Trade Center.  One day, the elevators were broken, and rather than await the repairs, (a huge crowd was already waiting to board them to get to work too), I chose to walk up to the office.  After the 9^th floor, there were no more lights in the stairwell.  I reached my office on the 38^th floor, gripping the handrail at each step in the pitch dark.  When I opened the door on the 38 floor, all the office lights were functioning normally and the early crew was working as usual.  I was stunned that the electricity for the elevators and the lights for the stairs might be on the same circuit, malfunctioning at the same time.  I complained at that time to my union representative, but shortly thereafter left the job, and never knew the outcome of my complaint.

With the bombing of the WTC in 1993, I was shocked to see TV reports that the lights were off in the stairs.  This time I complained to the newspapers, and my letter was published in the NY POST, 8 March 1993, “WTC: Dark Stairwells and Other Lapses.”  The same letter was published in the New York DAILY NEWS, 18 March 1993, p. 42.   It was also published in NY NEWSDAY.  I did not think these letters important at the time, though the combined circulation of the three newspapers was about 2 million.  Noteworthy, I did not include these publications in my bibliography at that time or for some years thereafter.

Then September 11, 2001!  INVESTOR’S DAILY noted the changes in the stairwells.  “In 1993, it took six hours to evacuate most of the Trade Center after terrorists detonated a bomb in an underground garage,…After the bombing, however, batteries were added to every other light fixture in stairwells…Handrails were painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, which was used to mark a continuous stripe down the middle of the staircases.”  The newspaper concluded, “…, despite missteps, evacuation was cut by several hours.”  I am quite proud.  I suspect that my letters may have helped spur these improvements, which on 9-11 may  have saved many lives.  I do not maintain that my letters alone were the cause of the improvements.  But highlighting the problem in newspapers with circulation of some 2 million readers, may have helped push the authorities to make the improvements cited in INVESTOR'S DAILY.  In that sense, my letters may have helped to save lives. 

It is quite possible that the most important thing I have done in my whole life is write a letter to the editors of several New York newspapers.-----Hugh Murray