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Good morning, Democrats!
On Wednesday we will observe, for the 23rd time, a “National Day of Mourning” that has become known as “Patriot Day”. Although Patriot Day is not a national holiday, the flag atop all U.S. government buildings, and many other buildings, will fly at half-staff, and Americans are encouraged to display their own flags. It’s not a day of celebration. Rather, it’s a day to remember and honor the 2,977 men and women who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, plus more than a thousand of individuals who have suffered, and in many cases died, from the exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.
In addition to flying the flag at half-staff, it’s customary, when feasible, to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 AM EDT (6:46 AM here in New Mexico) to correspond with the time the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Like most of you, I was still in bed when flight 11 hit the North Tower. When Millie saw it on the news she woke me, but the initial suggestion at the time was that it was a terrible accident. But, when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower 17 minutes after the North Tower was hit, it became clear that this was not just a terrible accident. It was a terrorist attack. Nine minutes after Flight 175 hit the South Tower, American Airlines was alerted that their Flight 77, supposedly bound for Los Angeles, had been hijacked by terrorists as well. At 9:37 AM, less than an hour after the North Tower was hit, Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, never reached its intended target because a brave group of passengers and crew stormed the plane’s cockpit causing it to crash in a field in southwestern Pennsylvania, about 20 minutes of flying time away from Washington DC.
Most of us can remember where we were and what we were doing during the fateful hour and 17 minutes that all of this was going on. Most of us can vividly remember the terrible and often heroic scenes on the news that day, and the days and weeks that followed, as America tried to recover from the worst terrorist attack the world had ever seen. Most of us will NEVER forget. It’s up to those of us who can remember to educate those who were too young at the time to recall 9/11, and those who were born after that fateful day. We need to teach them that those were days when Americans of all races, religions, genders and political persuasions came together to take a stand against the evils in the world. Patriot Day is a day for all of us to be patriots and continue to push back against those who would destroy our government or our way of life.
Bill
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