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Other than tiny blurbs on what the current candidates are doing to mark the date, I have found very little to commemorate or solemnify the date. Even on Ricochet, there is one post that mostly just states our lack of progress in defeating Islamist terrorism.
Today is the anniversary of one of the worst attacks on US soil. Civilians were killed in an attack that forever changed the political landscape and our daily lives.
We no longer: send off or meet family at the airport gate, wear shoes through the airport, or even consider privacy an expectation.
While some news programs will do a retrospective on the human cost of the attack, focusing on the heroes of the day or enumerating the civilians murdered, overlaid on the flag and the NYC skyline or the Pentagon, few will take a moment of silence to remember the country we used to be.
The cost of that day was far more than the cost of human loss and ongoing illness in the few survivors.
The cost of that day was immeasurable for the entire country. We all suffered a loss of rights and a way of life that we can never again achieve. Our children will never know a life where every movement is not tracked by an agency. We will never again have the safety and certainty that we did before.
Today is a day of remembrance for those killed, as well as a day to recall what we and all future generations lost. We should take a moment to be grateful for the people who helped that day, for those who perished, and for those who survived. We should also take a moment to thoughtfully reflect on our lives since then and mourn what we had, who we were as a nation, and to remember that even if we weren't there, we all suffered a grievous loss.
9/11 was the day that America changed.
Discussion (13)
Amen TRN.
Where were you when the towers fell?
That is the question for all of us of a certain age.
STAFF • CHARTER MEMBER
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My oldest son was 5 on that day, joined the Marine Corps on his 18th birthday and received a medal for joining in a time of war. He did 8 years and was discharged 2 days before 9/11/21, and just 2 weeks after the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul. He has no memory of this date and his brother, who is now a Midshipman 2/C at Kings Point sees everything as ancient history.
A member of our church was working in the North Tower. And now his parents have passed, too.
Time is a cruel and unrelenting mistress and you can’t stop her.
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I was very surprised to find out that our University was holding a memorial service today to be attended by first responders and veteran alumni. I made a point to go just to make sure that some faculty attended. It wasn't crowded, but there were students, staff and faculty there. We observed a moment of silence; the carillon played a song composed for the day and the first responders laid a wreath at the memorial. Very moving.
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4o1 S. La Salle Street, twelfth floor. Just north of the Telegraph Building while we waited for our old office to be painted. We heard the news of the first plane hitting the North Tower on CNBC. I was telling my officemate about the B-25 that hit the Empire State Building in 1945 when the second plane hit. I knew then that the first plane wasn't an accident. Work kind of ceased at that point, until Bernie came into the room and told us that the city was evacuating buildings in the vicinity of the Sears Tower and we might as well go home for the day.
There was no point trying to hail a cab. I had to walk past Sears Tower to get to Northwest Station. I spent the walk back figuring out that if a plane hit, it would take about a second for the sound to reach the ground, and another eight before the debris started hitting the ground. (Being an engineer is not just something you can turn off, you know.)
The platform at Northwest Station looked like the train platform in Casablanca, except I didn't get a note from Ingrid Bergman. All trains were local outbound, standing room only until we got to Des Plaines. I heard about the Pentagon and Flight 93 on my Walkman. The markets were closed, so I don't think I went back into work until the following Monday.
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I was reading an old Dave Barry column the other day, where he mentioned getting to the airport an hour early so he could stand around and wait. Only an hour? Must have been nice.
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