As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, there are many in our country who want us to pretend that the greatest attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor never happened. They want us to look away from the Muslim terrorists who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and who drove another plane full of innocents to their deaths in a grassy Pennsylvania field. They want us to forget that on that day in 2001, Americans came under attack for reasons that few understood, from a far-away people who loathe our culture, our freedoms and our country.
When Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., dismissively says, “Some people did something,” she is trying to erase the truth. She wants us to forget who it was who purposefully killed 2,977 people who were going about their daily lives, unaware of the Saudi jihadis who schemed and plotted for years to cause as much death and suffering as possible to our great nation.
Sorry, Ilhan â I remember.
AMERICAS HEARTLAND COMES FACE-TO-FACE WITH 9/11 HISTORY AS 25TH ANNIVERSARY NEARS
I remember my young daughters calling home terrified that the planes had hit their father’s office, which was across the street from the Twin Towers. I remember my husband’s colleagues witnessing the panicked souls jumping to their deaths from the towers, and the rain of ashes that blanketed the entire downtown area. He was in midtown at the time of the attack, but his co-workers were not so lucky, navigating the pitch-dark stairwells of the neighboring building and wading through the debris-darkened chaos. Some walked miles to our uptown apartment, stranded by the closure of the city’s bridges and tunnels; they arrived frightened and exhausted, covered head to toe in ashes.
Life stood still, as New Yorkers watched on television the frantic recovery efforts at Ground Zero. The city’s ambulance drivers gathered to help the injured, but most returned home empty-handed; there were few survivors. We watched the heroic efforts of firefighters and police officers who raced into the falling buildings as others tried to get out; most were trapped and died there.
FRANK SILLER: ‘I LOVE YOU, BROTHER’ — THE 9/11 LOSS THAT INSPIRED A MISSION OF SERVICE
I recall the horror of the buildings collapsing, knowing what it meant for those left inside. In the days that followed, I remember calling friends and slowly piecing together who we had lost, and who had survived. Everyone knew someone who perished â a husband, a son, a friend. Lives were forever changed, darkened by hateful strangers.
People forget that in the days after 9/11, other attacks were expected. The enormity of the coordinated strikes suggested a military-type offensive. Everyone stayed home, avoiding Grand Central Terminal and other possible targets, not knowing whether it was safe to venture out. No major events took place in Manhattan for weeks; the city went dark except for the fires that smoldered for months where the Twin Towers once stood.
