We Can Never Forget Here on the Suncoast & Around the World

There are a few historic events in our lifetime that more forcefully changed our world forever, than the September 11th attacks. Today it has been twenty years, but for those of us alive on September 11, 2001, that day is one day to never forget. The world was forever changed by the trajectory of four airplanes that took off that morning loaded with passengers who had zero idea that their lives would forever be indelibly intertwined with one of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil ever to happen.

Where were you that day? What do you remember most? Can you forget?

A Moment of Silence

Today, we bow our heads in a collective moment of silence to remember those that perished that horrible day. Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and so many other titles were bequeathed on those whose lives ended in a moment of terror that gripped the world. New York would never be the same, as the felling of the twin towers changed the landscape itself. In the place of those once iconic buildings now stands a memorial as a stark reminder to an event that no one will ever be able to wipe from our memories or history.

There is a moment of silence for the fourth plane of passengers, who turned the fight back on the hijackers and brought the plane down short of its intended target. Firefighters and first responders who were in the commission of the jobs they loved rushed to try and provide aid only to find themselves part of the fabric of that day’s tragedy. So many lives changed forever as children would grow, never knowing fathers lost before their birth, a nation would enter into conflict over the course of action for this attack on our own soil, and repercussions of that single day would reverberate down to this day.

Never Forget Your Version of Events

If you were alive that day, where were you? There is a good chance you can recall with absolute clarity the exact details. Most that morning turned with horror as the first plane hit the towers, and we thought a horrible accident had just occurred. By the time the second and third planes were fireballs of destruction on the sides of the twin towers that would soon slide in slow motion toward the earth on television screens across the globe, collective disbelief dawned on us all. Can you feel what you did that day? Did you know someone in the planes, towers, or impacted by the loss of one of the souls who perished that day?

It is a visceral and bleak set of emotions invoked by all images, thoughts, and remembrances of that day. Today, we should put aside all that came after on the political front to remember those lost to this terrifying act. Remember those who gave their last breath fighting back on Flight 93 to try and stop another round of loss at either the White House or Capital Building. Sure, there have been movies, documentaries, and a host of other media that have been produced in the years since – but the real truth of that day lives deep inside each of us who can never forget.

History will tell its black and white version of that day, with mixed reviews. We have an obligation, though, to impart the heart, pain, and fear we all felt to the next generation. Sometimes, out of the pain of ashes and loss comes a collective story that no journalist, historian, or politician can accurately tell. We owe all 2,977 souls lost that day to impart our stories, remember their lives, and deliver a sliver of the truth of that day to the next generation from each of our perspectives. So today, honor the memory of that horrible day and tell your story to a child, grandchild, or someone else that maybe was not yet alive on that day exactly 20 years. Explain as best you can how it impacted and changed you. You are history’s greatest voice for those lost to never be forgotten.

WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER AND NEVER FORGET!

Photos courtesy of Deposit Photos