Remembering 9-11 By Tammy Schneider

When I realized that the next edition of the Independent was due to hit the streets on Sept. 11, I knew I couldn’t let the date slide by without saying something about 9-11.
This Wednesday will mark 18 years since that fateful day. I feel the same way about Sept. 11 that I am sure my parents felt when John Kennedy was shot. Everyone remembers where they were, what they were doing, who they were with.
I was sitting in my office, ready to start the workday, when co-workers began streaming in to check the news on the small television I had on my desk. Remember, this was before live-streaming, Google or Facebook, and we relied on power stations like CNN to provide our international news.
We stood in horror, watching a building with smoke pouring out one side, and gasped as a small plane flew right in to the windows of the building beside it. We wouldn’t find out until later that day that the attacks had been part of a coordinated effort across the United States that included an suicide bombing at the Pentagon and the flight 93 plane crash in Pennsylvania, when passengers attempted to overtake terrorists determined to attack Washington, D.C.
Death tolls rose while stories of heroism were told. We watched the same videos of the attacks time after time after time.
How could we know that this single act of violence and destruction would change the way we felt about the world and our safe place in it. Words like terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and Al-Qaeda became part of our vocabulary.
Even after 18 years, we still feel the after-effects of the 9-11 bombings. It’s hard to believe that our current high school graduates weren’t even born during this tragedy, but instead have grown up in a world that is constantly on guard, aware that the next attack could be right around the corner.
So on Sept. 11, I’ll do what we all should do. I’ll pause and remember all those innocent lives lost, and celebrate the heroes that put their own lives on the line to save others. I’ll remember the Canadians in Newfoundland that took more than 6,500 travelers under their wing and gave them safe haven during the worst time in American history. And I’ll hope that generations to come never have to live through such a tragedy in their lifetime.

Remembering 9-11 By Tammy Schneider was last modified: September 11th, 2019 by Tammy Schneider

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