Tomorrow our country remembers the attacks of 9-11-01 on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, DC and the failed hijacking that went down over Shanksville, PA. It was a dark day in our nation's history for sure. Everyone knows where they were ten years ago at 8:46am, 9:03am and times about an hour and a half later. I was a brand new mother. Just home from China with my daughter. We were visiting family and friends on the East Coast. I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched the second plane smash into the south tower. It was a sight I'll never ever forget. The day just got worse. As the news kept coming it made me weak in the knees. I was scared, sad and felt very stranded. It was a very odd set of emotions to feel all at one time. The attack on the Pentagon just about put me over the edge. I had lived and worked in Washington, DC before my nursing career got going and I knew how tight airspace security was. Planes had to follow a certain path to land at Regan National Airport and Dulles. There was no deviation...ever. That day was horrific. After the fact we learned that planes at Andrews AFB couldn't scramble fast enough to intercept that flight that had just left Dulles.
As the day wore on we learned of the crash in Pennsylvania. Weeks later we learned that the passengers on that flight fought back against the hijackers, and even though they went down and perished they gave us strength because they had fought back. That plane was meant for the White House. It took all I had to get back on an airplane and come back to Portland. My mom and my daughter were with me and I just figured if we went down, I'd be with the people I loved and cared about the most. The only person missing from that flight was my dad.
By the evening time on the news people were getting camera time to ask if anyone had seen their loved ones. They had fliers and pictures and descriptions. It was awful. You just had this sinking feeling that they were underneath all that rubble in New York and Washington. A makeshift wall went up almost overnight. On that wall were flyers and pictures with phone numbers. If you've seen this person please call her husband, mother, father, brother...Our nation had begun to grieve. Then we learned about the fire fighters and police officers who had responded to the initial emergency calls for help. There were stories of emergency personnel, climbing the staircases, helping the injured to safety only to go right back in there and start all over again, that is until the towers collapsed. Then silence. They pulled 14 or so people out of that wreckage still alive. The others weren't so lucky. They were regular people going about their everyday business that we call making a living. The attacks came out of the blue. They were horrifying, and devastating, not just for the families immediately involved, but for our nation. At first it seemed that the terrorists won. They accomplished what they set out to do. However, being American meant more than that. It meant that we would certainly grieve for those that were killed, but it also meant that we would stand up again and fight back.
Now here we stand, still, ten years later. The terrorists didn't win. They didn't win because we got up and dusted ourselves off and kept on living. There were babies born that day, and more over the next year who would never know their fathers. They have grown up over the last ten years as my daughter has, in the shadow of that awful day, but also in spite of it. They are a shining light of this generation. Their father's spirits shine brightly through their eyes and their hearts, and they will go on to be doctors and lawyers, and fire fighters and police officers. Those children, especially, will never forget, as most of us never will. We will continue to live our lives to the highest extent, in spite of the evil and horror that occurred that day. We might never understand why we were so brutally attacked, but as Americans will go on. That is our way, and truly a glass half full outlook. To those children who will never know their dad's I dedicate today's blog. Even though I didn't know your dads, I will never forget that day. It has been burned in my memory forever. Live your lives as your fathers did, as fully as humanly possible.
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