9-11-2001 The Day The Twin Towers Fell

9-11-2001. I watched it live on TV and the internet. I was just following my usual morning habits that day and so I had the TV on as I poured myself another cup of coffee. I was shocked when the broadcast was interrupted by the attack on the Twin Towers and the other planes were then revealed to be hijacked. It shattered my reality of what it meant to live in America; to be an American.

The stunning effect has had lasting effects on me, on you, on our society and on our world. Though we’ve become used to the feelings forced upon us on the day the Twin Towers fell, the effects are surely still there.

I vaguely remember somewhere in the whirlwind of my racing thoughts that day that everyone the world over would reassess what it meant to be an American. What America is perceived to be. This day would forever change us all. There could be no going back and there would be no way to go back. For the entire world would be watching intently.

The symbols of American financial superiority and dominance were under attack. The Twin Towers were on fire. They were full of people doing their everyday work and there were airplanes full of other people being flown into them like some kind of sacrificial human missiles. The message and awful imagery of hatred were surreal and sickening.

However you interpret it, whatever theory or angle or reasons you choose to help you attempt to understand the incomprehensible enormity of this day, our lives were changed by domestic terrorism.

Everything would be forced to change. I had no better thoughts than this, and still today I have no better words than this. Because we were rocked by the unthinkable. And now we had to think about the unthinkable. Domestic terrorism.

Domestic Terrorism. I use that term in the most basic and realistic manner. Unconnected to any political intention, I use the term as a simple descriptor.  The event was terrorism. The event happened here. Nearly 3000 people were killed altogether in one planned attack. And along with those lives so was our childlike perception of international superiority and invincibility. The nation was terrified. Hence domestic terrorism.

Our mighty government failed to protect us on that day. It has failed us still to this day, and likely to any day in the future that you may read this. For the death toll related to this event has grown with every war thus spawned. The countless injuries and maiming of our warriors. Collateral damage. Our national treasure being utilized to buy all this carnage. Political fallout. Social ripples. And still no end to it.

It’s ongoing simply because the bad actors have not yet been given their final curtain call. And just exactly why hasn’t that happened? Because yes, our government has failed us and indeed the world on that day and yes, it continues to invent spectacular fails upon the world stage within this macabre theatre of supposed righteous retribution and justice for all. Yet one must ask exactly what did the fall of the Twin Towers accomplish?

I have no answers. So today I offer this simple and inadequate post lest we the people forget and receive another wake-up call from a government that cant.

9-11-2001 Never Forget