I wanted to share something personal on the 8th anniversary of the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks. Like so many of us Americans, I can remember vividly the moment I heard about the violent and cowardly terrorist acts committed on U.S. soil. I was on my way to class when I heard a rumor from a friend that something had just happened in New York. We weren't in class 5 minutes before our director took us all out onto the football field and sat us down. We all knew something serious had happened because of the drained look on his face.
I remember leaning back on the grass on that warm and sunny day, waiting for our director to come out and tell us what he was preparing to say. I remember the clouds, just a dozen or so, small and puffy, burning off as the sun was climbing into the sky. Having been an amateur planespotter with my dad and our shortwave radio, I realized that the scene was wrong. Being close to Cleveland, the sky would normally be full of dozens of contrails and commercial airliners making their way across country. Instead, it was a virgin sky, eerily quiet. I remember sensing that something was really wrong, like I was about to be hurled into a horror film sequence.
Our director rode out on his ATV and stepped up onto his platform. He did not need to use his megaphone, and he opted to speak instead of yell. It was the most quiet I ever remember being in school. He told us that today, it did not matter anymore what our beliefs were, or what our family beliefs were. That it did not matter what our opinions would be. We just needed to know what had happened, and that we needed to be with our families so they could help us understand and to be close with them. He informed us that two highjacked planes had flown into the World Trade Center in New York City and that they had collapsed. I could not tell you if there were gasps, I just remember all of us staring, sober. He then told us that a third plane had flown into the Pentagon in Washington DC and that we would never forget this moment, or this date. He finished by saying that his heart went out to all the families who had died in these attacks. He then dismissed us, and we were free to leave school.
My sister and I were picked up from school by my dad, which meant he had not even made it to work that day. We asked him about it, and he said that they have been showing it all morning on TV. My parents had been watching the news when it happened and they saw the entire thing live. We got home and he explained that the news was going to compare this to the Kennedy Assassination for reference to historical events, which they did. He said not to listen to them, and to remember this how the nation might have remembered the Pearl Harbor Attacks. Being a military man, my dad told us that any attack on the military or government like the Pentagon, was deemed an act of war. He said that this even would change the outcome of America, and thusly, the entire world.
The words spoken on that day are still so very true. I will always vividly remember those moments. I hope we never forget that day, so those who were innocently killed, can never be forgotten. There is a little framed printed message at my local deli that I see once a week. It is showing its age as it fades in the clear plastic stand. It is a simple promise printed on a sky blue background with clouds.
"We display our patriotic colors to remember those who perished September 11th, 2001. We must never forget." -MANAGEMENT
Please take the time today to remember those who died 8 years ago because they were American. Many Americans have made unknowing sacrifices for their country because they were born here. We must all stand together, united as brothers and sisters, as Americans. This, we must never forget.
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