"The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve."
- President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001 Address to the Nation
In the past Republicans have been criticized by Democrats anytime they reminded the country of the attacks of September 11. It is not possible to honor the sacrifice of those who ran into the buildings when everyone else was running out, unless we remember, and remind the country, of what happened that day. It is important not only to remember those who lost their lives on that day, but to remember the kind of insanity and hatred that led the hijackers to murder.
"The people who did this to us are monsters; the people who cheered them have hate-sickened minds. One reason they can cheer is that they know we would never do to them what their heroes did to us, even though we could, a thousand times worse. They know that when we hunt down the monsters, we will try hard not to harm the innocent. Those are the handcuffs we willingly wear, because for all our flaws, we are a decent people." -- Dave Barry.Whether criticized for it or not, I think it is also important that we remember what it felt like on that day. I was watching the Today Show and saw the second plane hit the tower in real time. I remember shock, disbelief, and sadness, but most of all a vulnerability that did not exist on September 10. That feeling stayed with me for quite some time. I had felt it to a much lesser extent when the WTC was bombed years earlier, but 9/11/01 was, obviously, on a level never before seen in our nation's history. When I heard the announcement that the Pentagon had been hit as well, and then saw video of the gaping hole, my only thought was "we have been attacked and we are at war."
That feeling has faded a good deal over the years since there have been no new attacks on our soil, but we must remember that there are still people in this world who would like nothing better than to see a repeat of 2001. President Bush said "these acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." I fear the American resolve has been dented a bit. Hopefully taking time today to remember the events of September 11, 2001 will help firm up that resolve.
Over the past few years I have done several 9/11 tributes and memorials -- the preceding two paragraphs were repeated from something I wrote last year on 9/11. Here are links to some of those posts: September 11, 2008, September 11, 2007, September 11, 2006
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9/11
Comments (3)
Thanks, Lorie.... (Below threshold)1. Posted by pjaykc | September 11, 2009 7:41 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Thanks, Lorie.
1. Posted by pjaykc | September 11, 2009 7:41 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 11, 2009 07:41
2. Posted by Carol | September 11, 2009 7:43 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
This day is very emotional for me. It's like it happened yesterday. I will never forgot. But my blood is boiling over Obama telling the country we will now call 9/11 a "national day of service" so more people will get out and do community service. This is a joke and totally disgusting since none of his friends will get off their asses and do any charity work.
I can speak from experience. I spend most of my life doing charity and volunteer work. I'd bet my life few Obama supporters will begin a life of service to others, especially after Obama dishonors those who died on 9/11 by giving that horrible day a "new name". Totally disgusting.
2. Posted by Carol | September 11, 2009 7:43 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on September 11, 2009 07:43
3. Posted by Paul_In_Houston | September 11, 2009 7:52 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
As some of you may be aware, The Won is seeking to desecrate 9/11 as a "Day of National Service" instead, with the excuse that "We need to move on".
I recall, years ago when we were toppling the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar whining to some journalist that we should "Get over it!".
To which my response must be not only "No!", but "Hell No!!!".
Like many, I was at work on that day, learning of it when co-workers told me to check out CNN on the internet, and watched it play out, watching with horror when the buildings collapsed with so many still inside.
The next day, Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, normally a fairly angry liberal, wrote a column ( reproduced at WTC Trbute - We'll Go Forward From this Moment ) in which he observed...
Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.
Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.
And concluded with...
So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange:
You don't know my people.
You don't know what we're capable of.
You don't know what you just started.
But you're about to learn.
THIS is how I'll remember 9/11, for a VERY long time to come.
3. Posted by Paul_In_Houston | September 11, 2009 7:52 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on September 11, 2009 07:52