Thursday, September 11, 2008

Never Forget

Reposted from 9/11/2006, with some minor tweaks:

7 Years ago today, 9/11/2001, terrorists struck a series of coordinated attacks against the United States. Between the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and Flight 93 (which crashed in SW Pennsylvania), around 3,000 people were killed. Much like Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 (12/7), this day will go down in infamy. And much like the attack on Pearl Harbor, the attacks of 9/11 awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve. The resulting War on Terror continues, time will test our resolve.

I was supposed to be on an airplane from St. Louis to Seattle that morning, should've been in the air at the same time as those planes. But a last minute glitch cancelled my trip. I was very thankful on that day that my wife didn't have to worry about "my flight" during all the confusion of that day. I remember the confusion that day, as we tried to determine which of my coworkers were travelling, and where they might be.

Meanwhile, I used to travel to NYC regularly, but was only in the World Trade Center once. I was blown away by fact that more people worked in that building than live in my town in the St. Louis suburbs. On 9-11, as we all watched the towers fall, I kept thinking about "all those people". It's a miracle that only 3,000 were killed.

1 comment:

Sherry Pasquarello said...

yes, yes it was a miracle.

my cousin mike was supposed to be at work that day but he and his wife were closing on a new house.

sadly, a young man named colin, who was a poet in my group wasn't as lucky. he spent 2 years in a hospital with severe burns and a broken back. he was then released to his mother and sister's care and died a few months later from complications.

the government would not list him among the victims of 9/11 because he survived too long.

the last poem we got from him was tiltled "the good book" it was a poem about a book that was read to him in the hospital. it isn't until the end of the poem that the reader finds that the book is "the hobbit".

no one will ever forget where they were that day. i can still recall being a young girl at st. schos and the nuns having us pray for kennedy and then sending us home.