Twenty-one years ago today, our country suffered one of the darkest days in its 246-year history. What seemed like a normal clear morning with the sun shining its rays upon the New York skyline devolved into an ash-covered inferno in the span of just a few hours. A normal day like any other with families wishing each other well, sons, and daughters kissing their parents goodbye, counting the minutes until their return, passengers boarding airplanes to head to their scheduled destinations, for 2,958 people, we would never see their smiles again, their futures and endeavors cruelly taken from us by an enemy hellbent on our destruction. At 8:45 am, the first plane struck the north tower; it seemed like a terrible accident, but then at 9:03, another crash, this time into the south tower, and at 9:37 am, another strike into the pentagon. It became clear what the true motives of these strikes were and the horrible realization set in that this was an attack on the homeland. People across the 50 states stood at a standstill watching as the planes crashed into DC and New York, watching in fear that their homes, cities, or areas could potentially be next. Fear gripped the nation as the terror flashed across their screens, and the horrors being transmitted on the radio instilled upon the American people feelings they wished they would never feel again. It seemed that at that moment, the terrorists had succeeded in their aim of scaring and harming our country, but they forgot about one thing, the essence that makes us all American, and that is the strength of our spirit.
For the boundless amounts of fear, an even greater show of bravery matched. The brave firefighters rushed into the inferno of ground zero to save lives; the passengers on flight 93 stopped the terrorists from hitting capital hill and saving thousands of lives; to afterwords, the brave soldiers who fought abroad and many of them, giving up their lives to keep our way of life safe from harm. Now, 21 years later, we hold it upon ourselves to never forget what happened on September 11th, 2001. Never forget what happened; hold it upon ourselves to live for those who died that day. For us, the living, to love for them, smile for them, and be unrelenting in our fight to preserve our way of life. The American way of life shall continue; we pledge it to them, ourselves, and the world. Our unique experiment, a government born by the people of the people for the people, will not perish from this earth. We must not acquiesce, we shall never bow to those who wish to harm us, we must never give up and we must never forget.
Daniel
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