Bad by U2

On 9/11 I was a United Airlines flight attendant who had just returned home to NYC the night before, from a route which included flight 93. (Obviously there's a lot more to that story, but this is about the song) A little more than a month later I went with a good friend to see U2 play at Madison Square Garden. It was so comforting to be in a room of 20,000 people and feel our camaraderie. It became a safe place for the cathartic release of energy and emotion that had been building. Singing turned to screaming during Bad when we got to the lyric "I'm wide awake, I'm not sleeping", an f-you to the terrorists that they could never get away with this again. Tears streamed down my face as I mouthed "If I could, you know I would, If I could, I would, Let it go", knowing my 9/11 experience is something I'll never let go of despite their further urgings "Let it go, And so fade away". I left NYC and United in 2004 and struggled with the "Dislocation", "Separation" and "Isolation" of being around people who couldn't even begin to understand what it was like here that day. Hearing Bad always reminds me that somewhere out there, there are thousands of people who do understand. *On a side note - I moved back to NYC in May of this year and even found an apartment with a clear view of the ever-rising Freedom Tower, a symbol to the resiliency of both the city and myself, and reminder to live for those who were lost.

Christine Schaefer