8:45 am. Where were you? I will never forget where I was. I was in my office at the bank I worked at when I heard the traffic guy report from his helicopter that there was smoke billowing from the North Tower. He also said there were unconfirmed reports that a small plane crashed into the tower.
I looked outside at the clear blue sky on that late summer day and couldn't see what would have caused a pilot to miss seeing these two magnificent, monolithic, iconic structures which defined Lower Manhattan, as much as, the Empire State Building defined Midtown, the Transamerica Pyramid graced the San Francisco skyline, or the Space Needle defined Seattle. It seemed surreal, impossible.
But then, not long after, another break-in of the regular radio noise happened, this time by ABC or CBS News, with the horrific story that the other tower was struck. Because everyone was now focused on the original crash and the subsequent fire, looking up to see what was happening, there were thousands more witnesses to see the second plane hit. It was no longer a local story and we all knew whatever and whoever did this, it was an attack on the United States.
At 9:37 am, another bulletin broke into the already maddening news of the Twin Towers. The Pentagon was struck by yet a third plane and was, as well, on fire. This was an absolute disaster to our country, that the symbols of our financial well-being and our military might could be so blatantly attacked in such a manner.
We were dazed as a nation and tried so hard to get a grip on these fast-moving events. What else could happen to add to this already nightmarish day, a day that was so beautiful when it started just four hours earlier?
In less than thirty minutes, we had our answer. A fourth hijacked plane, believed to have been heading for the nation’s capital, for either the Capitol Building or the White House, symbols of our free and powerful government, crashed in a field in rural southwest Pennsylvania. The fear now became how many other planes were hijacked; how many more tragedies were set to befall us as Americans?
Before the fourth plane crashed, at 9:59 am, less than one hour after it was hit, the South Tower collapsed into a pile of rubble. The magnificence of this building was gone in a flash, taking so many souls with it. At 10:28 am, not yet 105 minutes after the first plane crashed into it, the North Tower was also no more. There was an eerie daylight in downtown Manhattan, not seen since the very early 1970s. It was frightening to know how that was possible.
The tragedy of this day was not yet done. During the collapse of the North Tower, debris fell onto the roof of the original 7 World Trade Center, a much smaller building at only 47 stories high. At 5:21 pm, this building joined the towers on the ground. Fortunately, unlike its sisters which brought down with them almost 3,000 souls, this building had been completely evacuated earlier in the day.
As much as December 7, 1941, April 12, 1945, August 6, 1945 or November 22, 1963, the events of September 11, 2001 changed America and the world forever. No longer can we rely on oceans to protect us, if they ever really did. Certainly, we were still that naïve on that horrific day to think we were somehow immune from attacks on our homeland.
It has been thirteen years, and fourteen Septembers since that tragic day. It seems to me that so many Americans have begun to forget those events as they fade into history. But I won’t. I have spoken out on what led to that day, and also the events of September 11, 2012, where an American Ambassador, Chris Stevens and his security team of Sean Smith, Glen Dougherty and Tyrone Woods were left by our government to be murdered by Islamic militants in Benghazi, Libya. Our government turns a blind eye to the possibility that these events could happen again. And probably will.
I have many friends who practice Islam and they assure me, that much like the IRA who killed Protestants in Northern Ireland until the mid-1990s, these Islamic terrorists have no true faith in their religion. They have co-opted Islam and have used it to justify torture and murder of those who stand against them, including other Muslims. They are criminals, barbarians, inhuman beasts who, like the Irish Republican Army, decided to use God, or Allah, as their justification to kill innocents.
The lessons of 9/11 need to be remembered and re-taught in classrooms. To stand behind political correctness so that we don’t appear to discriminate against those who clearly wish to harm us is to commit the greatest disservice by our government in violation of the preamble to the Constitution. Our current President, his Attorney General and other members of his Cabinet are in violation of the Constitution and their oaths to uphold it because they are not.
In case they have forgotten, perhaps this may be a reminder:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
This, then, is the lesson of 9/11. Let us not forget that many people died that day because our government took its eye off the ball. It is incumbent on each of us to never forget that day, or the events in Benghazi, to remind others of the agony we suffered as a Nation and to make certain it NEVER, EVER HAPPENS AGAIN.
So Help Us God!
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