Remembering 9/11

Today I want to pay tribute to 9/11, the most devastating foreign attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  While 2,996 people were killed that day, 2,605 were U.S. citizens, including 2,135 civilians. Three hundred seventy two were non-U.S. citizens.  Among those who died, 67 individuals were from the UK, 47 from the Dominican Republic, and 41 from India.  In total, more than 90 countries lost citizens in the four attacks.  It was also the deadliest incident for firefighters, as well as for law enforcement officers in the United States. The New York City Fire Department lost 343 fire fighters, while 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority officers lost their lives.  This is truly a global remembrance, and one we should never, ever forget.  In 2009, Congress named September 11 a National Day of Service and Remembrance.  Further, as long as I have a blog and am cognizant, I will try to remember to pay tribute to those who died on that day 18 years ago today.

Before the world as we know it changed forever, this was one of the places I visited.

I remember taking photos of this fountain, which can also be seen in the aerial view above.

I will never forget the shiny gold lobby.  While waiting for the elevator to take me to the Top of the World Observation Deck in the South Tower, I remember taking photos of myself in the reflection of the gold elevator doors.  I even remember I was wearing a pink and white matching short set.  Amazing the things we store in our brains that time refuses to allow us to forget.

After the attack, those elegant stairs in the South Tower I remembered climbing to reach the gold elevator to the observation deck, were now nearly unidentifiable, as this photo shows.

I made a conscientious decision to NOT show the towers collapsing and burning, although I will share a couple of photos of the remains of the human devastation that was taken to, and found at, the Fresh Kills landfill.  According to the caption under this Time Magazine photo:

More than 65,000 personal items were recovered from Ground Zero, including 144 rings, 437 watches, 119 earrings and 80 bracelets.

Possibly the most bizarre photo I found, also from Time Magazine, was this one above of identification cards belonging to Blue Cross and Blue Shield employees found during the screening of debris at Fresh Kills. The fact that so many people burned to death in both towers when the planes ripped the buildings apart, then the fires burned for over 12 weeks after the collapse, it seems odd that bits of plastic, although deformed, would make it through all that heat and devastation.

And lest we forget, the twin towers weren't the only casualties that day.  Two more planes, their passengers, and crews also perished that day. Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:38 EDT and Flight 93 crashed into an empty field at 10:06 EDT.

There are also those left behind.  The loved ones of these people who perished must never be forgotten, either.  Some first responders who weren't on duty feel survivors guilt and suffer PTSD, just like those who have been to war.

I told this story on a friend's blog yesterday and thought it might be appreciated here. 

I remember a husband and wife were news reporters at the same station in Wichita, KS.  In fact, they met there and were married before I moved to town.  They left Wichita shortly after I moved here.  Both took jobs at the same station in NYC. The morning of the 11th, she was live on air and he was in the field when it happened. I remember our local station where they had previously worked picked up the feed and decided to show it to honor them. When the first tower fell, she asked if he was OK. Silence. More asking if he was OK. By this point, she forgot where she was and instinct took over. You could hear the fear and desperation in her voice as she tried to reach her husband in the field, not really realizing (or probably caring) that she was on air. Several hours later he checked in at the station, but he had been caught in one of the waves of debris that rolled along the streets near the falling towers. He had ducked into a shoe store to get out of the debris and flying dust.  It just shows how even professionals have real lives that were deeply affected that day.

Feel free to share your own 9/11 memories on this day that is embedded in our brains and one we who lived through it will never forget.

And finally, although I never don't try to get political on my blog, I just can't keep quiet today.  I don't understand our president.  First he refuses to allow the dear Bahamians, who now have only the clothes on their backs, who don't have a home, belongings, possessions, or even their passports or legal papers, because they were so busy trying to save theirs and their children's lives, are not being allowed to find safe harbor in this great country of ours that opened its arms so freely in the past, BUT he invited the Taliban to sacred Camp David just in time for them to celebrate (and gloat over) this day of remembrance.  To lighten this message a tiny bit, I defy Dai$y from Trout Talking Tabbies to write a longer run on sentence for which she is so famous!