The Solemnity of an Anniversary, Twenty-Five Years Later

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Many of us who were alive and aware of the events which took place twenty-five years ago today can remember where they were when they heard the news. Much like when JFK and RFK were assassinated.

It is just one of those defining moments in US history. Like Pearl Harbor and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

On that day, 2,977 souls were lost. And those deaths have affected us ever since.

Breakdown by Location

World Trade Center: 2,753 deaths (including civilians and hundreds of first responders).
The Pentagon: 184 deaths (including passengers and crew on American Airlines Flight 77, as well as Pentagon personnel and civilians).
Shanksville, Pennsylvania (Flight 93): 40 deaths (not including the four hijackers, after passengers bravely fought back).

It seems we all knew someone who died. My cousin Tom and my sister-in-law’s daughter Monique were lost that day. Sadly, my sister-in-law was watching in horror through her hospital work window as the towers began their collapse.

We had all finally watched the events unfold during that day, and the days which followed. It took days and weeks to finally come to terms with that tragedy. But in the years since then, the families who lost loved ones are still haunted by those events.

Subsequently, thousands of people who lived and worked in the area, or who worked on the pile of debris looking for remains of victims in the following months, were affected with all sorts of carcinogens which affected their health. But no amount of money will ever cover the true cost to their health and/or their lives.

And the cost to our freedoms and liberties is immeasurable to that which we enjoyed prior to 9/11. Our country is not the same.

We can lay blame on what caused this tragedy, whether on poor construction to the building, the government’s neglect to intelligence leading up to the event, or to a specific ideology. All may have had a role but were not the cause.

We need to acknowledge that it were those individuals with the dark hearts and souls, filled with unmitigated hate, which caused this. We need to realize this on our own or we, too, will be enveloped and consumed by that same hate.

We need to remember this day as a sacred day, as we do with Pearl Harbor or the day JFK was murdered in front of us. And we need to remember that the 2,977 souls we lost that day, and the thousands since, did not die with hate in their hearts.

It will forever be a solemn day in American History. And will hopefully continue to be revered in the decades to come.

May they all forever Rest In Peace. Amen.