World Trade Center Towers
Shanksville, PA Flight 93 crashed before it could make it to it's target thanks to the passengers aboard and their willingness to fight to save other people.
The memorials for the World Trade Center The memorial for the Pentagon
The memorial for flight 93
Ten years ago, today, we witnessed a life changing attack on American soil. Thousands of lives were lost that day and many more in the years that followed because of this the events that took place on September 11, 2001. My heart still breaks thinking of the devastation and loss incurred that day. It amazes me that some people have all but forgotten the fear we all felt, the anger, the sense of patriotism that arose in all Americans that day. I don't think I will ever understand how people could just go back to "life as usual" after something so horrible. How can you forget? I know I never will.
Where were you that morning? Do you remember how it made you feel? I do. I was in CA on a military base with my 2 toddler sons and a brand new baby girl. She was only a month old. My husband was overseas and I remember being so afraid! The base went on lockdown and and my husband's shop sent over another Airman to sit with me for a while so I didn't feel so alone. My family was all in Texas and his was all in Kansas. It was terrifying. Life after September 11, 2001 was a nightmare on base. You couldn't go anywhere without your active duty spouse with you....which was difficult since mine was overseas. I had to have someone from the shop come to take me grocery shopping. There were checkpoints all over base. If you didn't have your military ID card on you, you were not going anywhere. Gone were the days of care-free living. Life on base was almost like being in prison. We were scared to go anywhere off base for fear we wouldn't be able to get back on. The security checks were terrifying. It was unreal to see all the M-16s on the shoulders of all the troops that were patrolling the base. It was very strange to live like that...especially here in America. I was so proud of how NY was dealing with this tragedy. I watched on TV for days on end. I'm not sure I really slept much during the first few weeks after. I remember waiting to hear from my husband that he was ok and hoping that there wouldn't be another attack as we all figured it would be somewhere on the west coast. I was only 30 miles from San Francisco and 35 miles from Sacramento. The thought of something like happening so close to me was utterly terrifying. What grace and poise the people of New York had!! I wanted to go help, but I knew there was no way I could with 3 babies at home and no one to watch them. The first responder in me wanted to pick up and just go to help in any way I could. It's amazing the response that we have when something horrible happens to our fellow Americans. It's really sad that it takes a tragedy like this to bring us all together. It's even more sad that just a short time after something like that we all return to the way we were. There are still people hurting, yet we lose our vigilance after such a short time. To our generation, this is our Pearl Harbor. There should be outrage for decades....yet here we are only 1 decade past this unthinkable tragedy and you have people that could care less. It's so sad.
This morning in church we did a special service. They called it Patriot Day. The images that we saw in the video montage were still able to strike emotion in the people that watched. The song God Bless the USA brought tears to everyone's eyes that was over the age of 30, patriotism swelled in the hearts of those same people. It made me wonder how the younger people felt. They seemed so unphased by the pictures and as if this was "just another church service" to them. Where is the respect and patriotism in our youth?? Have we really let this be forgotten by the very next generation?? What a sad day it is.
I hope that we as parents will teach out children about this. Tell them that it happened to US, not just to the people of New York. We should tell them how it made us feel...the good and the bad. We should help them understand how much of a tragedy this has been. Teach them about the heroes that day, the 343 firemen that went up into those towers in New York to help and were lost, the many policemen and women that were lost trying to help, the EMS crews that tried to save lives and help any way they could, the civilians that took it upon themselves to go running back into burning buildings to bring people out and were lost in the collapse. Remember the people on the planes that had courage to fight back. Teach them about the people that were lost. Help them to see them as real people with families, and lives just like us. Don't let the memory of this die only a decade after it occurred! I know I will never forget! God bless all the families and our country!
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