A Q&A by Eric Harper

On Sunday, September 17th John Michael Thornton will take part in a panel discussion commemorating the 5-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The panel will take place at the Oakland Center for the Arts in Youngstown following a production of Anne Nelson's 9/11-themed play _The Guys_.

John is a Youngstown native and a graduate of Youngstown State University. On September 11, 2001 he was a freelance graphic designer employed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the World Trade Center.

In 2004, John returned to Youngstown and founded two locally based Internet businesses: BlueDragonBeauty.com and AmericanMetaphysics.org. He answers questions about his New York experience for the first time here.

PART ONE:

Eric Harper: The New York Port Authority was located in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center?

John Michael Thornton: I worked on the 63rd floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. I started working there in June of 2001... The boss's window overlooked the Statue of Liberty. When he wasn't around I used to go and sit in his office.

EH: A rather famous event transpired while you worked there.

JMT: ...Yeah. At the time I was working 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and that day I was, truth to tell, a little under-motivated going to work. As I was about to leave my apartment I got a call from a friend in Ohio telling me, "Oh thank God you're still home. Don't go anywhere!" And I turned on the TV, and watched the video replay of the first plane going in, watched live as the second plane went in, started calling people and leaving messages on their voicemail to let everyone know I was okay. And then did what many New Yorkers did: I sat in front of my TV set for the next 3 days.

No one that I worked with was hurt. No one on my floor was hurt. I don't know of anyone I knew personally who was hurt in the crash. I'm sure that there were people that I saw in the elevator and things like that, but I'll never know.

Since I wasn't an employee of the Port Authority--I was an independent contractor--I didn't have the emergency numbers to call that other Port Authority employees had. If you are a regular Port Authority employee you know who to call in an emergency situation. You call your department, you call your boss, you call the HQ. Since I was a contractor I didn't have a boss to call. Luckily the Port Authority called me after about 3 or 4 days.

It turns out that _I_ was the missing person in my department. No one knew if I had lived. I was the last person they were able to locate.

A month after the attack, the Port Authority offices moved out to the airport. Within sight of our new offices was where that American Airlines plane crashed in Queens [in November 2001]. After _that_ the Port Authority also had a fatal crash testing the new air train. And after that there was a two- week period when four people in the office had family members die. My two years at the Port Authority was just death after death after death after death. It was creepy.

John's story continues in the next AmericanMetaphysics.org newsletter.

For more information on the 9/11 panel discussion and the stage production of _the Guys_ please visit www.oaklandcenter.com or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Eric Harper is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles. Send your feedback to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it