Some days live on in our memories forever. In my parents’ lives, Pearl Harbor was one of those days. The death of FDR was another.
In my lifetime, those days include the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy.
Then came September 11. I live directly across the New York Harbor from lower Manhattan. I heard the first plane crash. I ran to the harbor and arrived just in time to see the second plane crash into the second World Trade Center building. I saw it. That sight is seared into my memory.
The events of the day were unforgettable. The sounds (sirens and jets), the smell of burning plastics, the scenes we saw on television—the bodies flying through the air.
For many weeks afterwards, there were signs posted in public places in NYC: photographs of men and women who were missing. “Have you seen…?”
There will be debates and books for years about why it happened. It was terrorism, for sure. That day led us into a war that lasted for 20 years and cost even more lives. It changed the act of taking a flight, imposing security measures.
For the thousands of innocent men and women who died that day, it was a tragedy. I mourn for the children who lost parents and grandparents, for those who lost husbands and wives, brothers and sisters. I mourn for the firefighters and police officers who ran to the burning buildings and lost their lives. It is a sad day of remembrance.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A touching tribute, Diane!
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I worked downtown at the time. Thankfully no close friends or loved ones lost, but several good acquaintances died. I got dusted along with thousands of others in the evacuation. I have to assume it will always be the most surreal day of my life. The main emotions for me were, oddly, shock and laughter, thanks to a few colleague and the darkest gallows humor I’ve ever been part of. It wasn’t until I got back to my apartment, showered to wash the dust off, and watched the evening news that I cried.
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Surreal is the perfect way to describe the day. Even though my school was twenty miles or more from Manhattan, the attacks left us dazed and confused. Parents, loved ones of staff members and friends were gone in an instant. The brother of one of my daughter’s friends perished in a Pennsylvania field. His last recorded message was, “We’re going to try to take them out. I love you.” It is, indeed, a sad day of remembrance.
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“While the 9/11 attacks were committed by terrorists with an extremist Islamic ideology, subsequent terrorist acts in the US have had a wide range of origins. In 2019, attacks in the US were committed by attackers with “antifascist, anti-government, anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-white, left-wing, pro-choice, and white supremacist/nationalist extremism” ideologies, among others, according to a 2020 START report. Attackers typically did not have ties to organized, formal groups like al Qaeda.”
If you click the link and scroll down to the last chart, you will see a visual representation of the increase of domestic terrorism in the United States since Traitor Trump first rode that Trump Tower escalator down to announce he was running for president in 2015.
https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-americans-have-died-from-terrorist-attacks-since-911/
There’s another chart on the next site, too, that focuses just on domestic terrorism. It also climbs like a rocket into orbit after the traitor rode that escolator to start spewing lies and preaching hate.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/evolution-domestic-terrorism
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Thank you for that first-hand reminder.
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THis is a tough day, not as much patriotism as in the past with politics and divisions etc. Lloyd you sound like the traitor. There were explosives in the building and Bush got caught saying there were explosives in the building. Bush is satan.
https://thepeoplesvoice.tv/911-bush-admits-explosives-used-at-world-trade-center-video/
Diane took Trump’s quote and used it like plagiarism Joe.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/trump-911-video/2023/09/11/id/1134011/
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How is Lloyd a traitor for pointing out the well-documented nature of so much later carnage? Ah, citing newsmax as a source explains it all; you’re not anchored in reality.
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sorry KK keep following brainswshing lies, nothjing wrong witjh newsmax. Lloyd brain is a traitor he thinks trump is the traitor its biden, obama, clinton, deep state, rinos and the globalists. trump is one fighting them.
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My students mostly were born around 2010. Today, I gave all my classes a short in-class assignment, and as I always must do, reminded them to write their full name, period, and date on their papers. When I told them to write 9/11 on their papers, every class started laughing. It’s going to take me some time to fully grasp why.
I took the time after that, in every class, to tell a story. Here it is. On 9/11/2001, I woke up at 5:00 am. Sitting down for breakfast, I turned on the tv at 6:03 am to ABC channel 7 news. Yes, I remember what time it was. I saw the tower burning, and was angry at the anchor, I think it was Peter Jennings, for not telling me this was a movie clip or something of the like. I saw the second plane crash live and was livid that he didn’t seem to notice at first. What was this? I changed the channel, and thought it was some sort of conspiracy that such an unreal thing was being shown everywhere as if it were news and not fiction. I showered, and came back to the tv to watch the first tower fall. By then, I knew it was real. For some dumb reason, I decided to go to work that day. Habit, I guess.
When the tower fell, it looked on television like all of Manhattan was engulfed in flame, destroyed. When I got to school, I called my little sister, three years younger than me. No answer. She lived in Manhattan and worked a couple blocks from the WTC. For several hours that day, I didn’t know whether she was alive. At school, some people hadn’t seen what had happened and only heard about it, and some people didn’t seem to care. My students acted normal, and too many of my colleagues in the staff meeting that Tuesday afternoon were laughing and smiling and carrying on as if all was well. It was an unusually beautiful, sunny day, after all. That hurt me. I didn’t know if my sister was okay.
I didn’t know if I was okay. I didn’t know if some private or state group was going to attack Los Angeles. That day. I was afraid. Terrorized. This country was different before 9/11. We were care free. I went to a Dodger game the other day and had to pass through a security check to get into the stadium. That didn’t happen before 9/11. We used to travel freely everywhere.
Our whole world changed. And a whole lot of good, innocent people died. My sister is okay, but that doesn’t make it okay. Look, I know y’all weren’t born yet in 2001, but do me a favor. When you’re around your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, anyone who was alive and conscious that day, be sensitive. I still can’t think about it without bawling uncontrollably. The memories are as fresh as yesterday. Be good. Make peace. Now, write the date on your paper and talk to me with your pen. The subject today is the value of elders.
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We remember because we’re over 30. It’s not possible for us to forget, in one sense, because we experienced this tragedy personally. But the thing is, that like all of history, this is bound to fade into something that is known, but not felt. I stood today in front of a class of teenagers while the moment of silence was observed in my school. But they were unaffected. They do not remember this at all, but have only experienced it vicariously as history, no different for them than reading about the Battle of Trenton or Marathon. It was all before they were born and out of the scope of their experience. I note this not to diminish anything, but to remind us all that it is the doom of all things to pass into history and lose their burden of pain and memory.
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Thank you. That was beautiful in a horrifying way.
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My children are all grown up now, and then some. But they weren’t at the time. I was nursing my youngest when my father came in the room and said “I think you’d better see this”. He’d never interrupt me ordinarily, never call me to the television. It was very obviously an assertion that could not be ignored.
And so we watched together as the second plane plowed into the building, with time cranking slower and slower and the panic that says “no, stop, don’t do that, stop, this is not happening; it cannot be happening”.
Later that day my elder said “I am taking my last suck now”, and she did. I believe my milk turned “sour”. How can one breathe enough through that to produce true sustenance?
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Here in Florida the extremists are trying now to use the term “Patriot’s Day” to honor 9/11. The right would like to co-opt the day for their right wing narrative. A Day of Remembrance is far more authentic and not political in any way.
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Diane: Several years ago you wrote a vivid description of your memory of the 9-11 incident. I used it in my class every year, not as a commemoration of 9-11, but as a part of our look at the Middle East controversies of the late 20th century. I wanted the kids to see how we experience history directly, personally. Your personal account was very valuable to me, and it received a comment or two from students who were mature enough to understand the tension in historical experiences. I owe you.
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Roy, thank you for using my reflections on 9/11 in class. It was a terrifying time. Unforgettable.
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