September 11, 2001...ten years later

This is a picture of Bryant Park in New York City.  They set up 2,753 empty chairs...one for each of the lives that was lost at the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001.  

For our generation, this was a day that no one will forget.  Where we were...what we were doing...how we felt. 

I was at work a little early that day.  Someone said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  I didn't really get it.  I didn't rush to the television.  I didn't know that our world would never be the same.  

A little while later when we heard that a second plane had hit the tower, we knew that something was terribly wrong.  We sat at work for the rest of the day, glued to the tv.  There was no work happening at work that day. 

I remember when they put up the picture of the attack on the Pentagon. I thought they must have the wrong caption on the picture...I thought "That is wrong! The planes didn't crash into the Pentagon. It was the World Trade Center!"  I was the one who was wrong.  It WAS the Pentagon too.  And the field in Pennsylvania.  It was horrifying.  

I remember people whose loved ones were missing holding their pictures up for the cameras.  They were desperately looking for any sign of their husband, wife, child, sister, brother, best friend, boy friend or girl friend.  Slowly over the next few days, most of these people hearts were broken...one by one.  

I remember people jumping out of the windows from 100+ stories up.  There was no other way out. 

I remember the firemen who walked into the Towers....going to fight a fire that could not be fought. 

I remember the triage stations that had been set up to help all the injured people who were expected to come out of the ruble.  I remember how empty the stations were....after the first little while, there were no more injured people.  No one was coming out for help.  The magnitude of the towers falling was too intense for people to survive...

I remember watching the first tower fall.  I remember watching the second tower fall.  I remember my jaw dropping.  I was in shock.  The whole country was in shock.  I remember watching the people covered from head to toe in the dust of the towers.  They looked like walking zombies.  

I remember seeing the throngs of people walking over the bridges leading out of NYC. Some people were walking home...some people just wanted out of the city.  People were scared.  We were all scared.

I remember being consumed by what had happened.  I remember not doing anything for awhile...just being sad. Every night was filled with watching the recovery effort.  The firemen, policemen and the many others who spent so many hours searching through the rubble for anything they could recover to give to the families of those who were lost. There were not a lot of bodies recovered (considering how many lives were lost).  They seemed to have disintegrated...vanished into thin air.  It was hard to imagine the magnitude of what was going on...but I felt such a weight of grief for so many people.

When firemen go into a fire, they have a sensor they wear that beeps a loud beep in the case that they are injured or are overcome by smoke so that they can be more easily found.  In the hours after the Towers collapse, the sounds of those sensors coming from the debris was deafening...so many beeps, so many injured, so many lost.  They gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Our entire country was united.  Our entire country mourned and prayed together.  Everyone was affected.

 

Now that 10 years have passed, a lot has changed.  We, as a country, have had a hard 10 years.  I hate to say that because I don't want the terrorists to win.  I don't want them to think they have succeeded in any way.  But the truth is, it has affected us profoundly.  It has affected our view of the world, our military, our economy, our prejudices.  It has changed forever the lives of the over 3,000 military (and their families) who have lost their lives in the wars that followed September 11th.  It affects the lives of the soldiers and their families who have been gone for 1,2,3,4 and more tours of duty, many being gone for 1 year at a time...missing births, birthdays, anniversaries and every day life with their families.

On this 10th anniversary of September 11th, I remember the way we were and the ways we have changed. I pray that God will continue to have mercy on America. I ask Him to help us, starting with me, to repent from our sinful ways and turn to Him so that He can heal our land.  

God bless America.