I remember the morning of September 11, 2001. It was an extremely clear day as I was listening to a local hip hop station while riding the LIRR on the way to work. The DJ, who was renewed for his off beat and sometimes off color humor, just announced that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. Then everything outside went black because the train rolled into a tunnel and my radio signal was cut off.
Boy, what a kidder this guy is, to actually joke about something like that.
But, it turned out he wasn’t joking. When I got out the subway, the streets were electric. Sirens were wailing. People were quickly moving about in different directions.
This wasn’t a joke at all.
It turned onto a news station because I wasn’t in the mood to hear music anymore. I thought a terrible accident had happened. This was before I heard on the radio that a second plane crashed into the World Trade Center.
This wasn’t an accident anymore.
Two blocks away from where I worked for all of my adult life, my city was under attack. At that moment, I didn’t know about the people jumping off windows of the WTC because they didn’t want to burn to death. So they jumped dozens of stories to another kind of demise. Some of their bodies simply exploded upon hitting the concrete.
But, that wasn’t the worst of it.
Planes were heading toward Washington D.C. We didn’t know how many planes were in the air and where they were going. One flew into the Pentagon. Another crashed landed in a field in Pennsylvania because some brave Americans on that plane rose up and chose to die on their terms and not of those of the terrorists.
However, in 2009, eight years later, President Barack Obama doesn’t allow us to use the words, “terrorists”, or “war on terror”, anymore. I won’t bother to mention the new phrases that are the official terminology of the Obama administration because they are not only idiotic, but an insult to the memory of all those who died that day.
But, for as long as I live, I WILL NEVER FORGET that day and the people who were responsible. The president can be as politically correct as he wants. For millions of proud, right thinking Americans, we will never forget the true meaning of 911. No matter how others may try to de-emphasis its meaning, we will never forget because we carry the blood of the greatest generation who answered the call of December 7, 1941. And for those who don’t even know the significance of that date, step aside, no change that, get out our way!
We salute and pray for the lives that were lost.
WE WILL NEVER FORGET SEPTEMBER 11, 2001!
Samuel Gonzalez, The Last Tradition, 9/11/09
