Never Forget

I can remember like it was yesterday.

September 11^th, 2001.

I was the president of Frontier Community College. The phone rang a little after 9:00a.m. and the person on the other end told me that there was a disaster brewing in New York. It seems a jetliner had somehow lost its bearings and plowed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

I had only been on the job for a couple of months. So, I walked out of the office and asked my assistant, Tara Farleigh, if there was a television on campus? She said there was in the student lounge in the West Classroom Building.

By the time I got there, there were three of four students already watching the screen intently. A Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel had struck the north tower. Then the second plane and the realization struck all of us. This was coordinated. We were under attack. I feared for my sons. I felt a war was at hand.

We sat there in stunned silence as the lounge filled with students as the word got out. Then the Pentagon was hit….and the jetliner brought down by brave passengers over Pennsylvania. 

Before it was over, 3000 Americans were killed.

And today there will be some media outlets that will not show you the video because they want you to forget. This story, much like Pearl Harbor must be told over and over so we do not forget the day the homeland was attacked.

Why are they reluctant to show us? It is the same reason some want Guantanamo Bay closed. They live in a bubble where they take for granted their safety. I have grandkids now. I want them safe…..so I remember 9-11. I support proactively taking the fight to those who would cause us harm.

I remember. 

We should never forget.