September 11, 2001
Those of you who read my work have probably noticed that I tend to be sarcastic, trivial, and sometimes humorous in my writing. I will go away from that today because there isn't anything trivial about this date. On September 11, 2001, America was attacked by terrorists. At 8:46 A.M. a plane was intentionally rammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 A.M. a second plane was intentionally flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:37 A.M. a third plane was crashed into the Pentagon. At 10:07 A.M. Flight 93 was crashed into a field after the passengers attempted to retake the plane.
If you are like most people, you can remember everything about that day. I was attending Bemidji State University at the time, and I can remember walking into an empty classroom and then looking for everyone. I found every student in the Commons gathered around televisions, somberly watching the smoking hole in the North Tower, gasping as a second plane came in and hit the South Tower. I remember the gas station next to the house I lived in raising its prices to almost $6 per gallon that day, and then dropping it overnight due to a government declaration. I am sure that you have memories of that day as well, and I encourage you to share them with someone.
It is the weeks after this horrendous attack that I often think about. For a few short weeks we ceased to hold onto the petty little things that divide us. We came together as conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites, Hispanics and Norwegians...for a little bit we tore off the labels that we seem to value so dearly and became united as Americans. The terrorists that attacked us were not going to steal our freedoms and ideals. America came together and said we will not live in fear. Yes, it was a sad time as we mourned the loss of innocent life, but it was also a beautiful time of coming together as a country.
Then the memories of that horrific day started to fade. We started to divide again...politically, racially, socially...we are so good as Americans at discovering ways to divide our country. Today I encourage you to look back at what brought us together. Those things are still there...compassion, patriotism, selflessness, love, devotion...and they can bring us together again. I solemnly hope that it will not take another attack to keep us from attacking each other.
Those of you who read my work have probably noticed that I tend to be sarcastic, trivial, and sometimes humorous in my writing. I will go away from that today because there isn't anything trivial about this date. On September 11, 2001, America was attacked by terrorists. At 8:46 A.M. a plane was intentionally rammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 A.M. a second plane was intentionally flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:37 A.M. a third plane was crashed into the Pentagon. At 10:07 A.M. Flight 93 was crashed into a field after the passengers attempted to retake the plane.
If you are like most people, you can remember everything about that day. I was attending Bemidji State University at the time, and I can remember walking into an empty classroom and then looking for everyone. I found every student in the Commons gathered around televisions, somberly watching the smoking hole in the North Tower, gasping as a second plane came in and hit the South Tower. I remember the gas station next to the house I lived in raising its prices to almost $6 per gallon that day, and then dropping it overnight due to a government declaration. I am sure that you have memories of that day as well, and I encourage you to share them with someone.
It is the weeks after this horrendous attack that I often think about. For a few short weeks we ceased to hold onto the petty little things that divide us. We came together as conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites, Hispanics and Norwegians...for a little bit we tore off the labels that we seem to value so dearly and became united as Americans. The terrorists that attacked us were not going to steal our freedoms and ideals. America came together and said we will not live in fear. Yes, it was a sad time as we mourned the loss of innocent life, but it was also a beautiful time of coming together as a country.
Then the memories of that horrific day started to fade. We started to divide again...politically, racially, socially...we are so good as Americans at discovering ways to divide our country. Today I encourage you to look back at what brought us together. Those things are still there...compassion, patriotism, selflessness, love, devotion...and they can bring us together again. I solemnly hope that it will not take another attack to keep us from attacking each other.
I did not know that there was a third plain
ReplyDeleteThere was actually plans to take over 10 planes, according to information uncovered after the attacks.
DeleteThere were four planes that achieved air time, just as John describes. It points out how little is said of the 4th plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, maybe because it didn't embody the numbers of life lost, as so did the World Trade Center Towers. There are transcripts/recordings of the conversation between the passengers and family at home, minutes before the plane crashed, when some of the passengers rushed the cockpit knowing their fate.
ReplyDeleteThe Pentagon crash too, is overshadowed by people in the WTC haplessly jumping to their deaths in New York. I've never seen that original footage depicting that horror that was on TV that day, and I don't want to. And yes, the 9/11 Commissions Report does contain the statements claiming additional planes were meant to be employed that day, or at the very least 'sometime' and that authorities knew/had suspicions that things were planned.
On one program about Sept 11 I recall, a man viciously verbally attacked a man of color. The two yell at one another, one on offense, one in defense, and the attacker shouts that it was an unprovoked attack on America.
"Unprovoked," I thought. "We can't believe that, not given our history, in and off this continent, disposing of one government to install 'our' governments, just like what happened in Iraq after 9/11. Our invasion of Iraq didn't achieve anything except the needless slaughter of thousands of our soldiers and innocent civilians. It doesn't seem to me that Iraq is better off in 2018 than it was in 2001. If we had stayed the course in Afghanistan, and stayed out of Iraq until Afghanistan and Bin Laden were resolved, there wouldn't have been so many needless tears shed in homes across the world. Saddam Hussein wasn't a threat to us in the immediate.
The fact that the United States has a history of interventions, many masked in the disguise of bringing democracy to the unenlightened, to people not seeking nor needing our brand of righteousness, of 'goodness', religion or language, invited someone, like Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, to attack us here at home because we weren't paying attention. We didn't deserve it, but we received it through every TV and radio station around the world. Our enemies struck back.
Two NYC Port Authority cops were buried alive in the rubble of WTC Building 5, two of twenty survivors total from the attack. I didn't know that many people survived. One man's name was John McLoughlin and the other was Will Jimeno
https://nypost.com/2011/09/09/former-port-authority-cop-recalls-sept-11-and-life-after/ An example of your recognition of great American/great human love for one another.