When the World Stood Still ..
15 years ago we heard incredible news of a “severe accident”. The news went out that a terrible accident happened in New York which was sent out on television live. We could not believe what happened so rushed to the television to see what was going on.
At 8:46 a.m. local time a Boeing 767 aircraft, which had departed Logan Airport at 7:59 a.m. en route to Los Angeles flew into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre in New York City. The images went viral all over the world. And while we were watching we saw again a plan flying in the other tower. This unmistakably gave us the idea this could not just be co-incidence but had to be something very well prepared.
The pictures we came to see at at 9:03 a.m. will be crafted in our heads for years. when we heard that 34 minutes later a plane crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia we thought a war had commenced in the United States of America. this time it was a plane that had departed from Washington Dulles International Airport at 8:20 a.m. en route to Los Angeles with a crew of six and 58 ‘passengers’.
Alarming enough, whilst we saw those two New York giant symbols burning, flashes of ‘fighting passengers’ on an other plane reached our European living rooms. Some very brave men and women attempted to subdue the hijackers of the Newark International Airport – San Francisco flight and avoided an other disaster crashing the Boeing 757 into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m..
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had already grounded all civilian aircraft within the continental U.S. at At 9:42 a.m., and civilian aircraft already in flight were told to land.immediately. International flights where requested not to enter the American airspace. Those who had left already for the States were redirected to airports in Canada or Mexico, and were banned from landing on United States territory for three days.
Panic started to grow and a lot of diverse messages were spread across the net, bringing a lot of confusing and having wondering millions of people what was going on. the pilots must have had everything under control, but than they were not just American civilians who liked to get their passengers safe to their destination. This time destination was really hell.
It was beyond what came to see the world. This was not normal any more. Unbelievable also how the two towers collapsed.
For sure nobody in the planes could survive, but then we saw the battle for survival, people jumping out of windows stories high, no chance to survive such fall. Since the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 this was to become the most deadliest foreign attack on American soil. This time having victims from more than 90 countries in one day in one nation resulting in the deaths of 2,996 people and more than 6,000 wounded, leaving thousands of families deranged with irreparable emotional pain. It took until March 20, 2015 to have the 1,640th victim being identified, still leaving 1,113 victims unidentified.
You may wonder if we may forget this. I do find not. We always should remember.
But that does not mean we should remember only that horror that took place on that day in September 2001. We should also remember the countless stories of the incredible brave people who came to help those in need. Many firefighters lost their lives (343) not been able to have rescued more souls. Also 72 law enforcement officers, 55 military personnel, and the 19 terrorists died in the attacks.
In Arlington County, Virginia, 125 Pentagon workers lost their lives when Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the building. Of these, 70 were civilians and 55 were military personnel, many of them who worked for the United States Army or the United States Navy. The Army lost 47 civilian employees, six civilian contractors, and 22 soldiers, while the Navy lost six civilian employees, three civilian contractors, and 33 sailors. Seven Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) civilian employees were also among the dead in the attack, as well as an Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) contractor.
Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, an Army Deputy Chief of Staff, was the highest-ranking military official killed at the Pentagon. {Free Encyclopedia Wikipedia}
This we should remember, that it is possible that terrorists are capable to work for years at a destroying program. That such vicious people can be patiently enough to take their time and to infiltrate many systems.
But we should be careful not to let ourselves to be carried away becoming of the same flesh as those terrorists. We must all such candidates show that we are made of a much stronger soul and that we let ourselves not being carried away by undermining ideas letting ourselves to become infected by the hatred that drives a terrorist, by the racism that drove the Nazis and seems to drive many today again.
We must give clear signals to the outer-world, to the people around us, to politicians, to terrorists, that we want to strive for a peaceful world where many religious and non-relgious people can live together with their different cultures not asphyxiating them but enlightening them. Today we should stand strong and show aspirant terrorist and racists that those senseless hatreds are not what we want and which we must blot out forever. Being aware what man can do to himself we must strive to remember what it is to suffer, to remember what terrorism and genocide really look like.
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Further reading
- My Twin Towers Memories
- World Trade Center–South Tower
- The Twin Towers Before & After September 11th Attacks: Looking Back
- On the Eve of 9/11
- WTC 2001
- 9/11
- 9/11 by Anastasia Nicole Elisabeth
- 9/11 by Big T Books
- 9/11 by Bob Mitchell
- 9/11 by J Blattblog
- 9/11 Was Fifteen Years Ago #9/11 #NewYork #USA #NayabChohan #TemplateNews #DistantEchoes #NayabChohanLive
- 9/11 -On the 15th Anniversary
- On 9/11 anniversary, sculptor Schmalz seeks to depict the love that can save even a terrorist
- 9/11 Remembered . . .
- Why would anyone fly a plane into a building?
- My September 11 Story
- Watch: September 11, 2001 Live News Coverage as It Happened
- Watch: 9/11 World Trade Center Attacks [Videos]
- 9/11 – 15 Year Anniversary
- We remember 15 years ago …
- Why You’d Never Get Lost in NYC – 9/11
- 9/11: perspective of a retired firefighter
- 9/11 Pentagon Victims: Who Died at the Pentagon on September 11?
- Israel Did 9/11
- FBI Agent John O’Neill Warned of Al Qaeda Threat Long Before He Was Killed on 9/11
- Senator Markey Leads Resolution Honoring Flight Attendants And Pilots On 9/11 Anniversary
- Flags to be lowered and moment of silence to remember Sept. 11
- Nation Just Goes Ahead And Decides ‘Freedom Prevails Over Hate’ Is Lesson Of 9/11
- 15 Years Later: Remembering 9/11
- Never Forget
- Where I was on 9/11
- #NeverForget My 9/11 Story
- Remember
- I Remember 9/11.
- Fifteen
- “Fifteen Years”
- 15 Years
- 15 years ago…
- 9/11 15 years On
- 15th Anniversary of 9/11
- Fifteen 9/11’s
- 15 Years Later, Obama Extends 9/11 ‘National Emergency’ To Justify A Perpetual War On Terror
- First Responders From 9/11, San Bernardino Attacks Come Together
- Remembering 9/11 on the 15th Anniversary
- My Experiences During 9/11
- My Family And 9/11
- Never Forget 9/11
- History
- Taste of Dust
- Waste Places
- When the World Stood Still ..
- “Everyone had all these questions:” Local first responders recall where they were on 9/11
- 9/11 Quotes From Survivors, Bush and Family Members of Victims
- 9/11 Jumpers: Remembering the Victims of September 11th
- Photos: 9/11 Newspaper Headlines
- Blind man tells how his guide dog saved him from World Trade Center during 9/11 attacks
- Remembering 9/11
- Remembering 9/11, Obama Set To Slap America In The Face Again
- The Kindness of Strangers in a World of Pain
- Modern Courage
- Fifteen Years Later
- September 11th: 15 years later
- September 11 15th Anniversary: 30 Pictures We’ll Never Forget
- September 11: Bible Verses of Peace on 9/11 15th Anniversary
- Ep 335 The Annual 9/11 Remembrance
- I Will Never Forget
- September 11, 2001 – We Will Never Forget
- Never Forget: New York, NY 2001 & Bengahzi, Libya 2012
- Dallas Memorial Stair Climb Remembers 9/11
- Bucks County Remembers 9/11 Victims
- Black and White Sunday: Infrared & Rememberance
- Someone Had My Back…
- In Those Moments
- Remembering 9/11 by Sojourners heart song
- 9/11 is the day I lost my grandmother
- Seeing It All With Ingeborg Lariby
- On this day… (by Anne Marie)
- New York Fire Fighter Blocks Out ‘Christian’ Hate Preacher Outside World Trade Centre #9/11 #NewYork #USA #NayabChohan #TemplateNews #DistantEchoes #NayabChohanLive
- Why They Remember Witnessing 9/11
- Robert Milnes Recalls 9/11
- Remembering 9/11/01 From Our Y108 Studios
- 9/11 Memorial Service, National Cathedral, 2001
- A 9/11 tribute album: Ave Maria Mass & Suite For The Americas
- Haunting and beautiful: Jewish prayer for the dead of 9/11
- Praise Poems: Jesus walked through flames for us.
- I am Grateful That God Is…
- Sunday Matinée
- 9/11 Anniversary: Look Back At Ellen DeGeneres’ Opening Of the 2001 Emmys
- Nostalgia: On the 15th Anniversary of 9/11
- 9/11 fifteen years later: Who were the terrorists that planned the attack?
- 9/11 videos that question the official narrative…
- Unison – Day 9
- A Helluva Town
- Every. Vote. Matters. – How to vote from abroad
- What the Canadian Saw on 9/11/01
- Happy (?) September 11: How Does it Look From India
- Charlie, Will, Bob…and Jamie
- Saint Mychal Judge
- Saint of 9/11: Remembering Fr. Mychal Judge as a Gay Priest
- From the ruins and ashes, much was raised.
- And so just what did we learn from 9/11? In some ways not much…
- Guardian “Facebook fact-check ” on 9/11 – every bit as poor as you would expect
- Obama Faces Humiliation After House Unanimously Passes Bill Allowing Sept 11 Lawsuits Against Saudi Arabia, by Tyler Durden
- Why After 15 Years Isn’t 9/11 a Federal Holiday?
- 9/11 ~ United We Stand, Divided We Fall
- September & After
- After September 11th, the U.S. loses its mind
- In Memoriam – 11/9/2016
- 15 Years (on Michael’s monologue)
- 15 Years Ago by Michael Gurley
- Parents of 9/11 victim turn pain into purpose: “We have sought to pay tribute to our son”
- Memories and thoughts of 9/11
- As You Were
- Cherry Hill Residents Look Back And Remember September 11, 2001
- Finishing the Climb: Local First Responders Memorialize 9/11’s Fallen
- Iconic 9/11 flag, missing for years, returns to New York City
- 15 Years after a struggle of 13 years
- Subway car pulled from World Trade Center goes on display
- Mood.
- Flags placed on Statehouse lawn honoring those who died on 9/11
- September 11 Again
- why we’re covering 9/11 fifteen years on
- September 11
- 9/11 Unhappy Anniversary
- Remember always – 11 September 2001
- 9/11 Fifteen Years After…
- 9/11 Fifteen years on
- USA: 9/11 – 15 Years On
- September, 11th, 2001 – We Will Never Forget
- Never Forget
- 9/11 Fifthteenth Anniversary
- Where Were We on 9/11/01?
- 9/11… We Remember
- That day, fifteen years ago.
- 9/11 by Histories by sorts
- Artwork of the Day: Twin Towers Liberty
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Beautifully written. Thank you
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Well said. Good list of references. I think I have my reading for the year. – Lorian of DogDaz Zoo
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