REMEMBERING 9-11 by Cliff Knizley

The first inkling I had was when the phone rang, it was my mother calling. “Are you all right”, she asked. I had no idea what was unfolding, until she told me to turn on the TV. I did so, just in time to see the second plane hit the south tower. The first in a seemingly endless series of mind numbing, terrifying images that would follow.

Images of people hanging from more than a hundred stories up, realizing that escape was impossible and that the only option was to burn alive or jump. Images of tens of thousands of New Yorkers racing in terror away from The World Trade Center, as hundreds of firefighters, law enforcement and other emergency personnel rushed into ground zero. Heroes intent on sacrificing themselves in an attempt to save total strangers. Images of Twin Towers falling and black smoke rising amid chaos and terror. More than a thousand miles away I was terrified and mortified, unable to fathom what those on the ground or in the buildings must have been experiencing.

Later that morning we learned of a third plane hitting our Pentagon and a fourth plane going down in Pennsylvania and we saw images of Palestinians dancing in the street. Images of terror, of hate, of war declared on us. Images so profoundly real, that miles and miles away from Ground Zero, my mother felt compelled to call and ask “are you all right”.

Perhaps, the most profound aspect of what we witnessed on September 11, 2001 was the overwhelming difference between the Islamofascist culture of death and destruction and the American culture of life. Nothing could be in greater contrast than people willing to kill themselves in order to murder as many innocent civilians as possible and those willing to risk life and limb, attempting to save the life of just one total stranger.

The image I remember most is one relayed to us in the words of those who spoke to the passengers aboard Flight 93. One of a group of extraordinary citizens, aboard a hijacked plane, who realized that they were on the front lines of a war. Citizens who knew they were doomed but, took it upon themselves to stop another target filled with innocent victims from being hit. Citizens who proved that a cult of death can never defeat a culture of life.

When I think about that day and the days that followed, I will never forget the anger and the overwhelming desire most of us had to strike back at the malignancy of al-Queda and it’s ideological brethren or the fear that maybe their movement had metastasized and that more attacks were imminent.

Thanks to the passengers on Flight 93 and the actions of many brave souls in the days since September 11, 2001, that next attack never happened.

Today we should all thank the members of our military, our intelligence and law enforcement communities and we should all say thank you to W.

Cliff Knizley
September 11, 2001

Filed under: PC by Mr.PC