Archive for September, 2008
September 11: 7 Years Later
It’s been exactly seven years since that fateful morning when, as so many have said, “everything changed.” Four passenger jets were hijacked and used in a coordinated attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon and the White House in Washington, D.C. It’s something that ties everyone across the generations together: Everyone remembers where they were when they heard about the Sept. 11 attacks.
The immediate results of those horrific events touched the lives of every American. It highlighted our heroism: Passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, the plane targeting the White House, fought back and caused the flight to go down in a field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its target. Firefighters and rescue workers in New York raced into the collapsing buildings to save as many people as possible, many of them losing their own lives in the process. Citizens from all over the country traveled to the sites to comb through the rubble and salvage what, and who, they could.
But these heinous acts of terrorism, despite all the heroism that accompanied them, were completely devastating to this country. The Towers’ collapse claimed the lives of 2,749 people, Flight 93’s crash claimed 40 and the Pentagon attack claimed 184 victims. And those were only the beginning. The attacks brought about great acts of heroism, but they also triggered shameful acts born out of hate and fear. Sept. 11 represents America at its greatest, and also at its worst.
The attacks began a ripple effect that extended into all corners of American life, and touched nearly every country in the world. They resulted in a war that continues to this day, forever changed our laws and public policy and affected our economy, our military and our attitudes toward religion. The impact that these attacks had stretched further than we imagined.
Looking back on the last seven years, we can reflect on what changes that day has wrought. Were our actions worth the results they brought? What should we have done differently? What can we do to change our future?
How can we become the great country we’ve always had the potential to be?
Read the original column online here.
