No matter what anyone thinks in regard to how it happened or who did it, 256 people in four planes were killed. 125 people at the Pentagon were killed. 2606 people at the World Trade Center were killed. 6000 people in all were injured. On September 11, 2001, four planes affected the lives of nearly everyone in civilized society in the entire world and radically changed the whole of the United States as we knew it. Just as I know nothing of the happenings of December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed, those graduating high school this year know nothing of the morning of September 11, 2001 and that’s the way most major media outlets would like to keep it ....or so it seems. In a land whereby a fictional game of war is at the very fingertips of those who like to play games on their computers, the non-fictional scenes of the twin towers being struck by planes and their eventual demise is too harsh, too mentally conflicting to be shown by our media any longer. The truth is, it happened. Life changed, I changed. We found that America was and is no longer safe from those who would wish to destroy us. On that morning, I felt rage, fear and sorrow all at the same time. ...I cried.
I seriously remember that morning. Wife and I got up to get ready for work, turned on the tv just as an airline was going into the trade center. I called SIL (wife's sister) and told her what happened and she said "oh Cody, you're just joking around like you do so much". I told her to turn on her tv. She did and definitely found out that I wasn't joking. We both went to work, but nobody was talking about what had happened, but the radio was on over an intercom broadcasting what had happened. Guess folks were just in shock at what had just happened. I remember that, for, I don't know how long, people were flying the small clip-on American Flag on their vehicle window. Also remember that ever rodeo we went to during that time, before the Grand Entry, a Flag Girl was riding a horse around the arena, holding the American Flag and God Bless The U.S.A. was playing (by Lee Greenwood).
I think that everybody can remember what they were doing when the events hit the headlines. In Germany all running radio and TV programs were interrupted by information about NY. I was driving home from work in the afternoon at about 3:30 pm and was in the city center listening to music when the program was interrupted with precisely these words: "The world is holding its breath. The NY twin towers...." There was an immediate call-in and the first caller said: " What we're witnessing is the outbreak of the third world war." I'm glad that that did not turn out to be true. I then spent the rest of the day watching the news and all the TV specials.
I was watching "Little House in the Prairie" reruns on one of the off-channels that run shows in syndication. My wife was away somewhere. They didn't break into the show with the news, so I didn't know about it until our daughter called from Fayetteville, where she was in the Army. At that time, the first tower had been hit but the second had not yet been hit.
I was in a training session at work, and the TV was turned on and we watched in horror. I remember thinking, as I watched the firemen filing into the buildings, They are not going to be able to put those fires out!
I was driving through a really remote part of the county , and had the radio on and it didn't have a great signal, and I just caught something about a serious plane crash.. oddly I looked up through the windscreen into the sky above me, (why I did that I don't know) .. but I was presuming something had happened in London. ..2 minutes later my daughter rang me from work and told me that a plane had smashed into the ESB.. but there were no reports of casualties. Well as we all know that was to change very quickly...
Thanks, @Bobby Cole . He is quite a good speaker if you get to hear entire speeches. The media always seem to take things he says out of context to make him sound loony. Thankfully, they elected not to do it here.
There is one last thing I would like to add: Something we Americans should never get tired of nor complacent in our own renderings...……..