9/11
“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children. ” …President George W. Bush
Four planes. Nineteen hijackers. Two thousand nine hundred ninety-seven lives lost. A nation left shattered. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 21 years since the World Trade Center and Pentagon were hit by hijacked airplanes, and since passengers took down an airplane in a Pennsylvania field to foil the terrorists on board. Now, 9/11 is known as “Patriot Day,” a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
That day, twenty-one years ago was a day of tragic horror witnessed in real time by anyone watching television. My television was off. I was busy doing I don’t know what. My husband was talking with neighbors across the road. My daughter-in-law called me to tell me to turn on my television. I did and the images are burned into my memory.
So many things about that day can’t be forgotten. That second airplane fly into the South Tower. People realizing they had no escape if they were on the floors above where the planes hit and jumping to their deaths after making the sign of the cross. First responders running into the buildings. Those buildings coming down. The incredible stories of people helping strangers as they climbed down the smoke filled and collapsing stairs and fire escapes. The survivor stories. The stories of those who didn’t survive.
I did an internet search for 9/11 a while ago. It might take more years than I have left to look at all the links as 57,500,000 hits showed up in less than a minute. So we do remember. We continue to feel the horror of that day. We grieve for those who died on the ground and in the air. We remember the heroic courage of the men and women on the last plane who kept the terrorists from reaching their target even as we wanted it to be like a movie where they would overpower the terrorists and land safely. But they had no movie ending. It was real and so we grieve while we remember those who died and keep praying for the families and our country.
After the attack, President George W. Bush proclaimed a National Prayer Day on September 14, 2001. Here is a brief segment of his speech/prayer that day.
America is a nation full of good fortune, with so much to be grateful for, but we are not spared from suffering. In every generation, the world has produced enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America because we are freedom’s home and defender, and the commitment of our Fathers is now the calling of our time.
On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask Almighty God to watch over our nation and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn, and the promise of a life to come.
As we’ve been assured, neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth can separate us from God’s love. May He bless the souls of the departed. May He comfort our own. And may He always guide our country.
God bless America.
What do you remember about that day?
Comments 9
I was an Aide in a Special Needs Classroom. We watched the terror on TV while diligently working not to show our emotions to the children who were unaware of what was happening. I went to the bathroom and cried then returned with a smile on my face. I watched the news at home in horror and became very depressed and prayed for lives lost and those who survived. I can’t remember ever being so scared.
Author
It was such a sad and scary time, Pamela. I’m sure it was very difficult for you and the others working with your students that day to not just sit down and put your head in your hands in sorrow. Many families lost loved ones. Some of the survivor stories I read before I wrote my post last night had me in tears.
I was just out of college at my first real job. I worked at a child care center near our local airport. It was right before lunch and we where outside and told to come in early. It wasn’t until after nap time started that we learned what happened. I remember being in shock and awe and disbelief. But I also remember going to church and praying as everyone coming together. We need that sense of unity now more than ever in this country.
I was just out of college at my first real job. I worked at a child care center near our local airport. It was right before lunch and we where outside and told to come in early. It wasn’t until after nap time started that we learned what happened. I remember being in shock and awe and disbelief. But I also remember going to church and praying as everyone coming together. We need that sense of unity now more than ever in this country.
Author
We do seem to be very divided right now, Julie, and like you, I wish we could find a way to listen with respect and love to those who think differently than us. At least with civility. There was a unity of prayer then and a strength as our country responded to the terrorist attack.
I think I may have commented on one of your past 9/11 post, but I was at work as a Toddler Teacher in a daycare and my co-worker was home sick that day and called to tell me a that a plane went into the World Trade Center and then the second plane hit while we were on the phone. We had no idea what was going on and what might happen next. I live in Pennsylvania, so the plane going down there was a huge shock and sadness that no one survived. I think the images of the planes crashing into the Trade Center and Pentagon will always be engraved in our minds because it has been reshown so many times, but each time I think we all wish we could have a movie ending where it doesn’t happen or that everyone somehow survives. I remember a mom coming to pick up her kids that day and her brother was in the Tower’s, and she couldn’t reach him. He did survive though. My heart hurts to think of how many didn’t.
Author
It was such a tragic day with so many young and old being killed, Hope. One of the articles I read last night before I did my post said 403 1st responders died in the attacks. All sad and very scary. We all sort of held our breath for a long time, fearing something more would happen. I think I shared what I was going that week in a prior post too. We were attending the National Quartet Convention that week. They didn’t cancel it, but things were very subdued. Plus, where it was held is next to a busy airport and a UPS hub. Normally planes would be taking off every few minutes. It was very odd the rest of that week with no planes in the air.
I was at home in Vancouver, Canada, with a lady from Japan who I was tutoring. We watched the TV in horror as they played the videos over and over of the planes crashing into those towers. Finally I turned off the TV to start her English lesson, but she was too upset to have her lesson that day. She went back to bed with her door closed to process it in her mind. Over the next few days I had the job of convincing her that we were about as far from New York as we were from Japan, so it was unlikely a related terrorist attack would happen to us. However, it did suddenly change the friendly and easy border crossing conditions we used to have with the States into ultra strict and freakishly cautionary. I have stories about that–for another day.
Author
It was terrible watching and rewatching over and over that tower being hit and then falling, Pearl. I can understand your Japanese lady being concerned since she was in an unfamiliar place. And same as you that did change many things here in our country. Boarding planes, even attending games or whatever at stadiums became more of an ordeal. All the rules were to make us feel safer but at the same time, you had to think that if someone really wanted to circumvent the rules, they probably could. But thank the Lord, so far no other major terrorist attack has happened. It could be we have the rules and procedures and policing organizations to thank for that.