**Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright or even know if there is copyright to any of the photos included in this post. If I knew where each photo was from, I would credit them.
As this day is a important one, I think imagery of its events nineteen years ago is important.**
Hey youth,
Nineteen years ago today, my nation, the United States of America, suffered from a horrific terrorist attack.
I wish I was able to go and tell you every single story I know about this awful day. I wasn't born at the time, but it's no less a important day to me, and so spreading awareness of it is something that I really want to do given some things that a certain state (*cough* New Jersey *cough*) has done.
Instead of telling you every single second-hand thing I know about this day, I'm going to tell you briefly about what happened (in case you need a refresher or are not natively American and don't know).
The twin towers were part of the World Trade Center. These buildings were a dream come true for America when they were completed. The World Trade Center provided thousands with jobs in addition to what it brought to America as a whole, and it appropriately became a staple of this country.
When the concept of the trade center was introduced back in 1939 New York, it was, to quote History.com, "...dedicated to the concept of 'world peace through trade.'" Sadly, the trade center failed to bring that peace.
Then, in 2001, several American airline planes, civilian planes, were hijacked by terrorists. Two planes crashed into the twin towers, one was crashed into the Pentagon, and one was intended to be crashed into crash into Washington D.C., the country's capital, and we'll get into why it didn't in a minute because I have something to say about the Twin Towers.
The towers, as I said, provided jobs to thousands of people. The offices and business rooms were on the upper levels. A day care, for the children of the workers, was on ground level. These buildings had babies and children in them. Those airplanes that the terrorists hijacked likely had children in them, as well. Thousands and thousands of children. Babies who would've grown up and changed the world, children who had dreams they wanted to fulfill. Those towers, and likely the airplanes, were full of hope and beautiful innocence.
I say this to remind you of a well known fact: This was terrorism, and it was horrific.
Why do I wish to remind you of that? I remind you of it because people seem to have forgotten. My generation especially. I myself forgot today was 9/11 until my mom mentioned it. It's far, far too commonly forgotten by Americans, native or not. So I'm postponing the post intended for today, and give you this emotional ramble instead, because I hate the thought of failing to acknowledge this terrible anniversary.
Now, back to that plane that was intended to crash into Washington D.C.
Flight 93 of the United Airlines was one of the planes hijacked on September 9th, 2001. The pilot and co-pilot were forced from the cockpit (according to a flight attendant), and the passengers were told "remain in your seats; we have a bomb on board."
There were some people, three at least, on that plane who fought back. One of these people was a man named Todd Bearing. Mr. Bearing tried to make a call on the plane and was redirected to the customer service of the plane and ended up talking to the supervisor. This is how we know this story.
When Todd Bearing was done, he said to the other people planning to overtake the hijackers, "You guys ready? Okay. Let's roll."
We can't know all the details of what happened then. But we know this much: Todd Bearing and the other people on that plane saved lives and protected the capital of America and who knows how many people by, one way or the other, redirecting the plane and crashing it into a field where only the forty-four people in the plane (four hijackers included) died from the crash.
I wish we knew the names of every single person who died in 9/11, but with how horrendously big that list is, I'm afraid it isn't possible. We do, however, know all of the people who were on flight 93.
They are:
I won't grace the hijackers by giving them whatever fame they'd receive from being listed on my small blog.
If you would like to read more about flight 39, you can do so here.
If you would like to see an interview with Lisa Jefferson, the woman who took Todd Beamer's call, you can do that here.
If you have never watched a video of what actually happened on this day, if you have never seen actual footage and heard people talking and heard the people on the hijacked planes calling their loved ones and saying goodbye, if you've never heard a recording of the people on the streets reacting, if you've never heard audio of the airlines and military as they tried to handle this situation... I recommend you do.
They are dark, heart-breaking, horrible things, but they are real and they must not be forgotten. They're hard to watch and listen to, they're really, really hard. It's one thing to know a tragic event happened, it's another to see it happening and to hear the voices of people who know they're about to die. But these recordings are every as important as they are painful.
Every last phone call from inside the buildings and planes and around them, every single first responder, every passenger of those planes, every child, every rescuer, every passenger, every voice, every worker, every family who's suffered from this, every single person who tried to help, every single one of these people deserves to be remembered.
America, do not forget this day.
- EJ
P.S. Please join me in praying for the families of the people who died in 9/11 throughout what remains of today and tomorrow.
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