Saturday, September 11, 2021

REMEMBERING 9/11 TWENTY YEARS LATER

You may read my recollection of 9/11 written ten years after that momentous day by clicking on the link below.   I was not blogging in 2001.  (Also, to read history of 9/11 click here.)

https://joared-along.blogspot.com/2011/09/911-remembered-10-years-later.html

Comments written then triggered still strongly felt reactions from readers though a decade had passed.  

This 20 year anniversary of such a tragedy continues to elicit from me only slightly tempered emotional feelings as I've felt on 9/11 every year since 2001.   

I had no loved ones, friends, acquaintances, whose lives were taken, but like so many across this nation, around the world, we didn't know what was happening ... what might happen ... where ... when ... who ... why?    

Reliving the experience I wrote about, I again felt the increasing anxiety I felt then about what was occurring as I was viewing on television events unfold in real time that morning.  I was simultaneously speaking on the phone with my daughter in Virginia as the east coast atrocity came to the Pentagon, much closer to her.  Was my son and family safe in middle America?   What about family who I learned later could actually view the Twin Towers out their window?   At some point it even crossed my mind to wonder if we were safe on the west coast?

Like many, I never imagined such an attack could or would ever occur on our shores.  I had been a mere child on December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, (click to read event history), the day that has lived in infamy, so did not fully grasp the significance of that event at the time, unlike 9/11 when I was an adult.   

Also, on the Hawaii attack we did not have the immediacy of visual television news capturing the real time tragedies as occurred on 9/11.   Radio broadcasts, newspapers were dominant news sources.  I think most of us have wanted to believe that our shores would never again be subjected to such a foreign attack.  9/11 proved we were wrong.  

Domestic terrorism as we experienced January 6th is what we are subjected to today.  We cannot rule out foreign forces will continue to be of concern.   Our democratic republic is under assault but largely from within.  Truth has been trampled as leaders have let the American people down.  

We have ceased to be united as a people despite our differences, unlike how we were after December 7th, then for a short time after 9/11 before actions taken then went askew.  There is a truth to the saying, "United we stand, divided we fall."  We are long overdue for putting our country over political party. 

May we preserve our nation intact with a government as prescribed by our Constitution, not led by a one person leader who perceives and promotes himself as omniscient, God-like.    

Meanwhile, we remember 9/11, the lives of those taken from us, honor the national heroes who rendered aid.  
 
May we never ever have to experience any tragedy even remotely like this again.  

10 comments:

  1. I vividly remember 9/11 and the endless re-showing of the moments when the twin towers caught fire and collapsed. Absolutely shocking. Of course on top of the 2977 people who died at the time, many hundreds more have died since then of illnesses caused by the smoke and inhalation of toxic chemicals. We can only hope such a deadly attack doesn't happen again.

    Incidentally, Jenny and I once stood on top of the South Tower. The views were amazing.

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  2. I remember your 9/11 and our 26/11 vividly as I write this. I do remember other terrorist attacks like our German Bakery blast, Bombay bomb blasts and so on and can not join you in your hope that we should never have such events ever. You bet your bottom dollar that they will somewhere or the other particularly now that Afghanistan in back with the Taliban.

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    1. Yes, I recall those other terrorist attacks which were so gruesome with so much loss of innocent life. I think we in the U.S. have tended to think they occur elsewhere, but not in our country. 9/11 proved otherwise in a most violent way.

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  3. I remember the horror and fear of that day. It doesn't seem possible it has been 20 years as the images are still so vivid. We were shown then how vulnerable we actually are. Two oceans were not enough to protect us.

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  4. It's very sad how we stood united for a time and then divided again... especially now.

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  5. This had an impact outside your country as well. When the attacks occurred it was late evening in Melbourne. I had left the TV on without sound and was in another room doing something on my computer. I decided it was probably time to go to bed (about 11 PM) and wandered in to turn off the TV when I saw the first tower on fire. “What the…”, I thought and turned on the sound. It was not long after that the second plane hit, live on TV. It was some hours before I got to bed.
    I knew my brother-in-law (who lives in San Francisco) was due to fly to Boston that day. I tried phoning but all the lines to the U.S. were busy. I finally managed to get an email through (it was early days for emails) and my sister reported that he hadn’t left.

    On a sort of personal note, my football team (the Western Bulldogs, aka Footscray) were in New York for an end of season holiday. They had plans to have breakfast early in one of the towers. Something delayed them and they were walking towards them when the first plane hit. I could have been deprived of a team to follow (who are doing really well this year).


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    1. Many around the world were affected by this event as you note from Australia. I can appreciate the anxiety you felt about family here in the U.S. A few minutes delay in time certainly made a difference in your team members lives I expect they have thought about ever since.

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  6. It's difficult to know now how our Unity was squandered after September 11. So unconscionable. The world was with us then. I remember.

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  7. In my thinking I tend to turn it around to the smash musical "Come from Away" where here in Newfoundland took in thousands and thousands of passenger from flights rejected by the US and this small town took care of them all for nearly a week.

    Not denying the awful tragedy but also I look at the "revenge" where millions of civilians suffered in the Middle East.

    Endless wars. Everywhere.

    Universal peace seems a pipe dream.

    XO
    WWW

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  8. I so agree with you.
    I posted some links to the great 9/11 boatlift on my 9/11 entry.

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