September 11, A Year Later
It’s been a year now since that terrible attack upon our country and way of life. We’ve continued on with our lives but we aren’t over the dreadful shock. I doubt we ever will be. Life has changed for us in a way we never thought possible. I wonder if it’ll ever be the way it once was. I think about the people that experienced Pearl Harbor. They too must have wondered if life would ever return to the normalcy they once knew. Of course history has shown us that it never did. An American generation lost its innocence that day, and now, so many years later another generation too has had its world turned upside down. Our lives too, I imagine, will probably never be the same.
It’s so odd, this state we’re in. The president has declared a war on terrorism but it doesn’t feel like a war, not in the traditional sense of the word. Our planes and soldiers unleashed America’s fury in Afghanistan but it was against an enemy that somehow never really seemed quite real or at least never seemed a real threat. Certainly soldiers were in danger and the casualties were keenly felt but I don’t think anyone seriously doubted our ability to defeat the Taliban. They’re a people with nothing; we’re a people with everything. We had the resources and the resolve and though perhaps it’s naive of me, but I don’t believe they ever stood a chance against us. We literally took their country, on the other side of the globe, away from them.
Now we seem to wait and wait. The terrorists can still hurt us. We know this. There’s no way to protect against every possible circumstance or to prevent every possible terrorist scheme. Not and still maintain the freedoms that have made this country so unique in the world’s history. The very basis of freedom is the assumption of an individual’s innate sense of morality and ethics. Ultimately, we trust each other; it’s what sets us apart from nations governed by fear and tyranny. If we lose this assumption, we lose all we stand for. We know this belief is not always true, but we also know that we cannot lose our respect, faith and trust in the individual. It is the reason that every American can rise as high as their potential will allow. It is the reason that every American sets his own destiny. And though it might sound egotistical, it is the reason that we are the greatest country that the world has ever known.
Of course we get burned by this belief in the natural goodness of man. September 11, 2001 is the most recent example. On 9/11 our trust was betrayed and Americans died as a result. There are those in the world, usually tyrants and despots who’ve laughed at our foolish faith in humanity. I pity them. They see our national philosophy, our importance of the individual and faith in their character, as a weakness. They don’t understand. It is our strength. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” That is America. That has always been America. We open our doors and trust those that enter. We cannot and we must not ever lose sight of this. September 11 wasn’t the first time that our trust has been betrayed; it probably won’t be the last.
There’s another example that September 11 gave us, one that shows us how right we are in our assumption of human character, one that I hope is never forgotten. Those brave people on United Airlines Flight 93, the ones that took back control of the airliner and thwarted the plans of terrorists. Those people saved other Americans and whatever target the terrorists had chosen. They saved them at the cost of their own lives.
The bravery showed by the firemen and police rushing to the WTC that day was incredible. No one would ever deny that. But people in such occupations know their chosen profession is a risky one. They know that each call is potentially dangerous. They know that each day might be their last. But who gets on an airliner and thinks they’ll have to be a hero?
Can we imagine it, that frightful day, when those passengers first realized that something was terribly wrong? What whispered conversations did they have, what thoughts did they think, what terrors went through their minds? We know that the terrorists told them they would remain unhurt if they cooperated. We also know that the passengers on Flight 93 knew what had happened to the other aircraft involved in that day’s horrific events.
Perhaps we can imagine what happened, what went through their minds. We can because these were not people trained for this or any other similar frightening circumstance. They weren’t Special Forces. They weren’t elite fighters. They were fathers and mothers. They were husbands and wives. They were businessmen and students. They were men and women with families. They were, for lack of a better word, ordinary people. They were just like you and me. They were Americans.
They knew. They knew what was facing them. They knew what would happen. They made a decision to fight back; it must have been a frightening decision to make, absolutely terrifying. I doubt there is another nation in the world that can breed people that could or would do what they did. It can only be that we, as Americans, feel so very close to our country. It is truly our country. We, literally we the people, were under attack that day. Our government isn’t some distant entity; our national assets belong to all of us. Attack any part of us and you attack all of us. The passengers of Flight 93 understood that. They knew what they had to do. They knew the personal cost involved and they paid it.
“Let’s roll”, it’s reported a passenger said in one of the last cellular telephone transmissions as they took back the plane. What a last sentiment to face eternity with. Surely it is as fine as any last words ever spoken. "Let's roll", the resolve shown in those two words, the very tenacity they convey, and not by someone with years of training, not by someone that has prepared to give all at any moment, but rather by someone that was living their day to day life and suddenly was called upon to do the unthinkable.
Over 200 hundred years ago our forefathers challenged the most powerful nation in the world and formed a country. America has changed so much since then. The complexity of our nation and its role in world affairs has become staggering. However there’s one thing that has remained constant throughout all the long years, one trait that would still be recognizable to our founding fathers, the characteristic that links us with them. That’s the love of liberty and individual freedom and the willingness to sacrifice all for their maintenance. The passengers of Flight 93 reaffirmed this. So now, a year after the attacks, let us remember the passenger that cried, "Let's roll" and all that sacrificed their lives with him for they must surely sit with all those like-minded patriots that have paid the ultimate price for America.