September 11th 2001

By Stephen Saunders, Cofounder, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com

NEW YORK - No one at Light Reading has been able to find words to describe the horror of what happened in this city on Tuesday. Given that words are all we have to offer, this has left us feeling frustrated and helpless.

I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Like millions of others, I watched in stunned amazement as the first pictures were broadcast of the World Trade Center under attack. That shock turned to anger as the second plane struck, and I realized that America itself was under attack.

Light Reading's office on Leonard Street is less than half a mile from the World Trade Center. I caught a subway downtown, wanting to be with our staff. I assumed the fires in the towers would be put out. I assumed the towers would remain standing.

At 9:50 a.m. I came up out of the subway at 14th Street and started walking south. By the time I reached Canal Street I was part of a frightened crowd. I could see and smell the smoke. When the sirens weren't screaming it was eerily quiet, except for the indescribable sound that onlookers made when a body fell from the towers -- or someone jumped from the burning buildings.I was three blocks from Leonard Street when the first tower collapsed. The ground shook. People screamed. Some stood transfixed. Others ran in panic.

I ran as well, racing to our office. We did a quick head count. Only one person was missing, and she called in later that day.

I later learned that one of our employees was coming out of the Chambers Street subway stop, five blocks from the World Trade Center, when the first hijacked plane hit. She saw and heard things in the next half hour that I wish no one ever had to suffer through.

At about 11 a.m. we evacuated the office. (It's closed and will stay closed for some time. The best way to reach us is via e-mail.) I borrowed a bike from a coworker and rode up the West Sidehighway. Ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars roared past. Some were covered in debris and dust; others had broken windows.

At roughly 2 p.m. I held a phone meeting with executive editor Scott Raynovich, We decided the right thing to do-the only thing to do-was to continue posting stories to our Web site. Yes, some of these were about the tragedy and its impact on optical networking companies. But we also decided to cover regular industry news.This was a difficult decision. It seemed almost obscene to write articles about optical networking. But we believe that by continuing to do our jobs we fought back, in the only way we could, against the terrorists who had already inflicted so much pain on the citizens of this city and of the United States.

There are no bright points, no positives, to emerge this week. Still, all of us at Light Reading were touched by the messages we received from optical networking companies all around the world checking to see that we are OK. They've made me realize that the people who work in optical networking are notsimply part of an industry. We are a community.

Our message boards are another example of this community. Almost all the postings since Tuesday relate to the tragedy. They have demonstrated the best and worst about people. Obviously, we don't endorse the hatred and the rage in some of these messages. But we continue to believe that people must have a chance to discuss how they feel.

And some messages simply must be read:

http://www.lightreading.com/boards/message.asp?msg_id=18215