anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. It happened ten
years ago in three different locations; New York City, Washington D.C. and
Shanksville PA. A total of 4 aircraft were used as weapons and somewhere
around 3,000 people lost their lives just doing what they usually did on any
given day. The World Trade Center towers collapsed, the Pentagon was hit
and passengers on United flight 93 became the first soldiers in the war on
terror.
I'll never forget that day and what I was doing. My husband and I had a
habit of talking early in the morning after he left for work and I got up as
he went in earlier than I did. We had our conversation on the morning of
Tuesday September 11, 2001 as we always did. We hung up and I turned on the
radio only to find out that something awful was happening in New York city.
I immediately called my husband and told him to turn on the radio as WBBM
was taking feed from New York City for reasons I did not fully understand
when I called him. It would not be long before we understood what was going
on. It was also not long before we realized that this great nation was
under attack.
It was a cool clear morning that day. I went to the YMCA that morning and
it was quiet in the exercise room. Needless to say the T.V was on with the
coverage from New York City and other locations. It was there I think that
I found out about the Pentagon. It was definitely there that the towers
fell. It was there or later that I found out about the brave passengers on
United flight 93.
There was a national unity that had not been seen before in my lifetime and
sadly won't likely be seen again. People were thought of as Americans, not
Democrats and republicans. How I wish we had that today rather than the
hyper partisanship we have today.
We have not one but two wars as a result of that day. One I supported and
one I did not. Afghanistan was clearly related to 9/11 while Iraq was not.
We have many casualties as a result of both of these wars.
Earlier this year president Obama achieved something that eluded President
George W. Bush and that something was the killing of Osama Bin laden. That
was a wonderful thing and something that offers some closure for the
families of 9/11.
We have tighter security in airports, although not as tight as it could be.
Just look at Israel for that. There is so much we could learn from them on
the subject of airport security.
We've had some attempts at blowing up aircraft since 9/11 but fortunately
those were not successful due to vigilance and luck on our part. There was
the underwear bomber on a flight headed to Detroit on Christmas Eve 2009.
There was the shoe bomber as well.
There've been other plots that were foiled such as the one involving ink
cartridges and UPS shipments internationally. The Brits helped foil that
one.
This country has changed but I hope we never ever forget those who gave the
ultimate sacrifice that day to help those in need, our first responders. We
lost too many of them on that horrible day. You will never be forgotten.
I close with the words of Darryl Whirly from his song "Have You Forgotten?"
"Have You forgotten when those towers fell, we had neighbors still inside
going through a living hell and we vowed to get the ones behind Bin Laden.
Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten? Some went down like heroes in that
Pennsylvania field. Have you forgotten about our Pentagon, all the love
ones that we lost and those left to carry on. ...."
No and I never will.
