it is 9/11 today

It is 9/11 today. Today we remember the atrocity that was the destruction of the World Trade Twin Towers in New York City by militant Muslims flying jet airliners into them. Around 3000 people were killed.

I remember when Kennedy was assassinated. I was in Choir in the seventh grade in Freeport, TX. Someone came in with one of those white sheets of announcements that smelled so good. Made on a spirit duplicator machine. We were struck numb by the fact that our president was dead.

I remember when the space shuttle Challenger blew up as it took off. I was in college in Henderson, TN, in the snack bar. We all stood there and I told a teacher nearby that he needed to lead a prayer. He did.

And I remember hearing of the first plane hitting on the radio. I was in my study at the church in Tulsa. I wheeled a TV in and turned it on in time to see the second hit.

As was everyone else, I was numb. How could this be? What sort of person would kill 3000 people just to make a point?

I had a friend in jail at the time and was writing him weekly letters. The week of 9/11 in 2001 I wrote:

I am hoping that this letter finds you well, considering the circumstances, of course.  I am watching the reports on the World Trade Centers in New York.  The second one has just collapsed, the city is evacuated, all airports in the US are closed and all flights are grounded.  In case you hadn't heard, a plane crashed into each of the World Trade Center towers within minutes of each other.  One fell within an hour and a half and the second about a half hour later.  People are walking on the streets stunned, covered in dust and debris.  One man just said, “this is one of those things you dream of in your nightmares”, and he is right.  The Pentagon also sustained a blow from a third airplane, blowing up a major part of it.  All state buildings and federal buildings throughout America are being evacuated.  It is truly horrible. 

I am reading a book written by Tom Clancy about a plane crashing into the Capitol building, killing all of congress, the Supreme Court justices and all of the administration, leaving a newly appointed VP as president.  The only reason he had been spared was that he was so new he hadn’t moved in yet.  It made an interesting book, but a chilling reality.

The whole thing is almost unimaginable except for the fact that we are seeing it.  Peter Jennings just commented that we see so much violence on TV that when we watch this, it is easy to see it as a TV happening and not a real thing..  It is hard to see the real people and the real damage done.  It could be thousands dead.  They don’t know yet how many people were in the towers.

A quick terrorist attack on New York has forever altered not only the skyline, but also the lives of all involved, in fact, even in America.  Tens of thousands of people in a two block radius.

What could drive a person to do something like this, something so fictional seeming.  How many books and movies are written and filmed about such things, yet when it happens, it is astonishing.  The comment was just made that it is impossible to anticipate these things happening.  I feel that the attitudes of security people have been altered forever in our country. 

We have probably moved closer to a military society, one that is even more monitored.  We are that much more afraid.

And we are. It seems that each year we try our best to remind ourselves how much more afraid we are. And at the same time, those in the media try their level best to not mention who was responsible. Some even have made up stories about an internal conspiracy, one in which the government wanted justification for going to war.

Those people are fools.

I am grateful for one thing, though. George W Bush was president and not Al Gore. President Bush showed courage and good leadership throughout the entire crisis on a level that Mr Gore could not have done.

I have not always agreed with President Bush and he disappointed me and many other Americans in his second term, but I am grateful he was there at the time.