It’s been 25 years since the world changed. In a commitment to remember our dead and all of my brothers and sisters who gave their lives to right that wrong over that last quarter of a century, we made a commitment at SSD to commemorate that day every year.
Everyone should look back on where they were that day and what they were doing; the day of the world changed.
I want to embrace the feeling of helplessness I experienced that day. I want to remember it because I don’t ever want to have the feeling again. I was on leave that day and watched the second plane hit the tower. I immediately put on a uniform and reported to my squadron. I was the senior Intelligence officer and my commander wanted answers I could not give. The Intelligence community didn’t understand what was going on as it happened and consequently, the only source of information we had was what we saw on television. I pray America is never left so unprepared again. That is part of the reason I publish every day.
The death toll is unconscionable. There were 2977 innocents killed on September 11th, 2001; the vast majority, civilians. The untold cost is to their family and friends. The world will never be the same for them.
Something inside of me changed as well. I will never forget the people who cheered that day, celebrating an attack on America and the deaths of so many innocents. I can still see them as plainly as I see those poor victims falling to their deaths. To add insult to injury, our nation elects politicians who claim we deserved 9/11.
The crisis remains. Every year we lose more and more amazing people to issues caused by those events. Victims and rescuers alike suffer life threatening medical conditions due to the exposure to toxins during the attacks and continue to succumb to these lingering wounds. As a country, we must stand by them.
The toll…it weighs on.
Never Forgive, Never Forget
