This Month’s Featured Article

It was a beautiful fall day. Typical for an early September day. The sun shone bright, while the temperature was absolutely perfect. No humidity. Arguably the most perfect fall day.

Until it wasn’t.

Actually, saying that feels like an understatement and a gross injustice to those who perished and had to endure the aftermath of what happened. At 8:46 a.m. on this particular day, the world forever changed. 

Yes, I’m talking about 9/11. 

The day that a terrorist attack happened on American soil. When the first airplane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, the entirety of the United States was in disbelief. Even more so when at 9:03 a.m. the second airplane hit the South Tower. How could this be happening? And what, in fact, was happening?

It is hard to believe that this September marks 25 years since that day. The day that will forever be imprinted in our hearts, souls, and memories for those of us who were here to experience this fateful day. For everyone else, this day – and the days that followed – will forever mark a significant part in the history books and the culture of our country. 

Where were you?

Where were you 25 years ago when you got the first news of the attacks? Do you remember, as vividly as I do, where exactly you were, the sounds, the smells, the confusion, the fear?

I had just started college and I was sitting in my first class on that particular Tuesday. We were halfway through the class when someone came in and told us to turn on the overhead televisions. We sat there, in silence, watching one of the Twin Towers burn. Shortly after an announcement echoed through the entire college campus that everyone was to leave. Immediately. Go home. 

The Rip Van Winkle Bridge bridging the Hudson River between Hudson and Catskill was going to be closed, and so those students who lived in Greene and Ulster counties needed to get home, immediately.

When I got home, my parents and a family friend were all in my living room. Glued to the television. Our family friend was frantically trying to get a hold of his son who worked in adjacent building to the Twin Towers. The panic grew as phone calls went unanswered and some phone lines wouldn’t even ring. 

At 9:37 a.m. the headlines changed: The Pentagon had been hit. Excuse me? The Pentagon? What was happening?

At 9:59 a.m. we watched as the first tower collapsed.

I still get goose bumps as the footage plays in my head, as if I were watching it all over again.

At 10:03 a.m. there was an airplane that went down in an unknown location somewhere in rural Pennsylvania.  No other information was available at this time.

At 10:28 a.m. the second Tower collapsed.

All of those poor souls. The innocent people on the airplanes. The innocent people on the ground. All of the brave men and women who ran into the burning buildings. 

All airplanes in the entirety of the United States were grounded. There was an eerie silence, even in rural upstate New York. Later that afternoon that silence was broken by military aircraft that flew overhead. It felt like the loudest noise I had heard in my life, as we stared up at the sky and saw multiple military aircraft fly overhead.

We continued to watch on television as the New York City skyline was obscured by smoke. It was like something out of a movie. This couldn’t be real. Not long after, two hours north of New York City, we smelled it too. 

Where were you? 

We will never forget

For those of us who lived to witness 9/11, it is forever embedded in our very essence. For those of you too young to remember, or who weren’t even born yet, you’ve heard all about the fateful day and read the accounts. Regardless, it is a day that we will never forget as a nation. We don’t need to get into the aftermath of what happened, but instead this September 11th, let’s take a moment out of our busy day to pay tribute to all of the innocent lives that were lost that day and in the days, weeks, and years that followed. Let’s pay tribute to the ultimate sacrifice that those 3,000+ souls made. 

Even though it has been 25 years, I am still in disbelief over the events of that day. 

A few years later I visited Ground Zero. It was devastatingly emotional. There was just a big hole in the ground. All of those poor people. In late July of 2001 I had been there. I had stood in that same spot, except instead of looking down into the hollowed out earth, I had stood in the square between the Twin Towers and looked up at them before I paid for a ticket to take me to the very top. I had just been there mere weeks before the attacks. How could this happen?

And I suppose that, even 25 years later, that is still the question that I find myself asking the Universe. But a part of my personal remembrance and way to pay tribute to all of the fallen is to recount the events in a personal way, as I have shared with you, before then thinking of the day and consequent days in their entirety. Ultimately, this day, these events, did not just shape us individually but this shaped our nation. And it forever changed the fabric of our very culture.

This September 11th, we shall remember those innocent lives. We shall pay tribute to all of the fallen. We shall also pay tribute to all of the brave men and women who have risked their everything to protect our freedoms – then and now. We owe them everything. 

Let us never forget.

Let us forever be vigilant, to learn from the past, and to honor those who protect us every day of our lives. Let us also be reminded that we all have a duty as citizens of this nation to do our part, for we can all contribute, whether that be to our town, community, or to the country.

Never forget. Forever in our hearts and souls. •