Written by Paris Christie, Mckinley Corey, Ellie Hart, and Shady Andil
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, nearly an entire nation watched the devastation in New York City on their television screens. Steven Wineburg, owner of Bernard’s Custom Logo and Engraving in downtown Cortland, remembers watching in disbelief as the attacks occurred.
“I remember the TV was on downstairs in our living room and I could hear it, and something didn’t sound right. I called my mother. I said, ‘are you watching today’s show? Turn it on.’ And she goes, ‘what, are these scenes from a movie?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but it’s not actually real.’ So, we’re watching, and watching, we’re like, it can’t be,” said Wineburg.
Like many Americans, Wineburg spent the day glued to the news as the events of 9/11 unfolded before his very eyes. “It was the eeriest thing, it was a bad day for America,” Wineburg said.
When the first reports of Sept. 11, 2001, attacks spread through the media, current SUNY Cortland professor Sam Avery was sitting in his eighth-grade technology class. He recalls sitting in the basement of his middle school in upstate New York, just hours outside of the city where the tragedy unfolded.
“Something was up,” Avery said. “The adults were acting very odd and we, as kids, didn’t really know what was going on here, or at least my group of friends didn’t really know.”
School had ended early that day due to the events and Avery’s mother, a postal carrier, picked him up from school, rather shaken herself.
“My mother was very upset, which was very rare for her. She’s not a lady who gets upset,” Avery said. “I remember seeing tears in her eyes. She was very distraught which at that point I kind of switched from the teenage boy dumbness to like oh maybe something bad has really happened here.”
While Avery, being from upstate New York, didn’t know anybody personally involved in the attacks, Wineburg’s wife, a Bronx native, had family and friends in the city, some of whom lost loved ones that day.“There was a fireman my wife’s family knew who died,” Wineburg said. “Another salesman we knew lost over 30 of his son’s high school friends. He was never the same after that.”
Wineburg reflects on the changes he perceived in Cortland following the attacks in the years since. Wineburg said he’s noticed both how much and how little has changed in America. Living in the small community of Cortland, he didn’t see major shifts in local business protocols after 9/11.
“We’re a small town,” he said. “We don’t have the nightlife or the crowds that cities do, but I can go to bed at night knowing no one’s bombing the clock tower in Cortland.”
However, he adds that the attacks left him far more vigilant than he was in the past, which is a mindset he’s carried into how he parents his three children.
“You have to have a keen eye now,” Wineburg said.“When my twins were teenagers working at restaurants, they saw things like fights, overdoses, and people getting fired. It prepared them for the real world.”
Professor Avery also reflects on how the attacks changed the way he saw the world, especially as he was just an eighth grader when the attacks happened, and he describes how the events of 9/11 altered his view of being in open spaces at big social gatherings.
“I never was a big fan of airports but even to this day, I don’t go to an airport and not think about 9/11. It kind of lives forever in my head,” Avery said. “I won’t go to an event in any kind of large space, and certainly not in the city.”
Reflecting on the present day, Wineburg expressed concern over divisions in society and how media coverage contributes to fear and anger.
“You want to have your far-right and your far-left news channels… the media spreads hate,” Wineburg said. “They’re not broadcasting the news, they’re broadcasting opinions. There’s no respect anymore.”
Professor Avery also discussed his frustrations with how society, news coverage, and the government itself handled the fallout from the attacks and created so many enemies around the world in the years following 9/11.
“I mean, in short, I think the United States is just a real son of a bitch,” Avery says. “We’ve equipped people around the world and then abandoned them. We’ve, you know, brought in governments, and then kicked the heels out from underneath them. I’m not a particularly proud American, if you can’t tell.
“I feel like the government and the media very much positioned Turbans and Islam as the villains of my generation, which is obviously false,” Avery says. “I would argue, you know, yet another wonderful chapter in American history hasn’t been the result.”
For Wineburg, 9/11 is more than a historical event. It’s a reminder of fragility, connection, and the responsibility to stay aware. Despite the challenges, Wineburg remains grounded in his community. His family’s business, started by his grandfather in the 1940s, continues to thrive as he embraces resilience by running the store seven days a week, working while sick, and most importantly to him, being a dad.
“You do what you have to do,” said Wineburg. “There’s pluses and minuses to everything, but you keep going because we’ve got to do better, for all the people.”