Remembering Those Lost

Today marks the 8th anniversary of a very dark day in American history. Today back in 2001, over 2,900 people died in what was the most deadly terrorist attack ever to occur on American soil. On that day, four planes were hijacked by religious extremist terrorists and became weapons to take the lives of innocent civilians. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane crashed into the Pentagon near here in Alexandria, Virginia, and one plane was taken down and crashed into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The plane which had crashed in the field is know known to have been deliberately crashed due to the heroic efforts of those aboard. United Flight 93 had 44 passengers and crew on board when the plane was hijacked, like the other three flights, it was expected that it too would have been crashed into a building leading to even more casualties. But we now know that the reason the plane crashed in the field was due to the heroic efforts of the passengers on board who fought back against the terrorists and crashed the plane before it could ever be used to kill more people. These heroes sacrificed their lives in order to save the lives of others and should be remembered and honoured for all they did.

It is important to remember all those lost on that day and also important to remember and thank all the rescue workers who valiantly faced danger to save the lives of many individuals who survived through this terrible event. If it were not for the heroic deeds of all the firefighters and rescue workers, many more might not have made it out alive.

Back in 2001, I was in 4th grade in elementary school when this happened. I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing and how I was informed as to what happened. I was in a trailer classroom for a GT program when the first planes crashed into the twin towers. Up until then, it was an ordinary class, we were doing logic puzzles as we normally did when the class met once a week until our teacher came back into the room after being called out. Now, most teachers would not want to bother little children with news such as what happened but I remember her clearly explaining to us that even though we were young, this was something we would remember forever and we deserved to know. She explained what was happening at the time, by this moment, planes had struck both towers but they had not collapsed. She explained that people had taken over two planes and had flown them into the Twin Towers in NYC and that it was likely that many people had died as a result. Now, at that time, I was only 9 years old, I did not fully understand quite what was going on, I sorta knew what the Twin Towers were but the concept of terrorism was not something I, or any little child knew much, if anything about. By now, televisions were tuned to news reports about what was going on and terrified parents were now arriving in droves at the school to pick up their children, most of whom still did not fully understand what was going on. My mom's office in Maryland was shut down early due to the attacks and she ended up picking me up form school not too long a while after I learned about what I was going on. Back at home I would see later on the video of the two towers on fire, the panic on the streets of people fleeing from danger away from the smoking buildings and eventually the collapse. I also learned that closer to home, there had been another attack on the Pentagon, the headquarters for the US military in Alexandria which is not very far from where I live. While back then I might not have understood the true scale of what was going on, today I do.
The attacks on September 11th marked the beginning of a turning point in the world. Gone were the days of general people, the fragile bubble of security everyone lived in was shattered, opening the US and the world to a age of fear and anxiety. But in spite of all of this, 9/11 should not be remembered as a day that marked an time of fear, but rather a day of remembrance for all the lives lost and all the families impacted by this terrible event. In spite of all this, 9/11 did have one positive outcome, the attacks reunited the American people into one again, we became again one nation strong and free, a collective of voices and people who all shared the same cry that attacks on our land were not to be tolerated, because if you mess with one of us, you mess with everyone. America needed an event like this to make us remember that the world isn't an ideal place, but one principle will always stand true no matter what happens, We are the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, and even in the face adversity, we will always stand united and strong.