A Day that will Live in Infamy

The attacks of September 11th 2001 will always be the ‘Where Were You When…?’ of my generation.

Especially here in New York. At work today, there was a subdued atmosphere. Nobody living or working this close to the Big Apple managed to escape the tragedy of 9/11 untouched, so absolutely everybody I meet and talked to had a vivid story behind what happened that fateful Tuesday morning.

9/11 made the world change. From the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Centre emerged a ‘War on Terror’ that took America down the path towards conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The lackadaisical presidency of President Bush was transformed into his rugged White House War Machine – support or hatred for which divided the nation.

Images of orange jump suits and rows of coffins draped in the Stars-and-Stripes appeared on our TV sets.

Gitmo. The Patriot Act. Operation Enduring Freedom. Misunderestimated. All these words entered our common vocabulary as a result of al-Qiada’s brutal and cowardly attack.

But as one of my colleagues told me today – it’s not the time to think about any of that.

He is pretty liberal leaning. He has a lot of unanswered questions about what happened before and after 9/11 and where it’s taken the country he loves. But today, none of that matters.

He said it’s time to remember those who passed away in the tragedy. We can question the ‘why’ and the ‘who’ afterwards.

Almost 3,000 people were murdered that fateful morning and via ‘six degrees of separation,’ that leaves very few Americans untouched by the tragedy. The attacks left widows and orphans across the United States. On this date, it’s our duty to remember them.

246 plane passengers.
2,200 civilians at the World Trade Centre
125 at the Pentagon
343 FDNY Firefighters
23 NYPD Police Officers
37 Port Authority Police Officers

2,974 murdered people.

We will remember you.