It was a day like any other September day, perhaps a little cooler than normal, picturesque clear blue skies framing the horizon while gently nomadic nimbus clouds gathered overhead. For me to wax poetic does not fully justify the translucent ambiance of the day, the peaceful accord between life and environment, and the innocence of ignorance.
It could have been a day easily forgettable if not for the horrible reminder and ominous feeling that dates yield when evil events unfold inside their ranks. I struggle to recall these dates from history class; December 7, 1941 (Attack on Pearl Harbor), June 6, 1944 (D-Day), November 22, 1963 (Kennedy Assassination), and August 4, 1968 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination). There are others from our history, from our cherished ancestry, as there are notable dates from different generations all throughout the annuals of time. We memorize them as children, minds impressionable, bent on whatever context we are taught, yet nevertheless, the evil that once unleashed itself on humanity is safely tucked away in a textbook with worn pages and highlighted passages from previous students studying the very same yesteryears.
Many events have changed the course of history but very few have the gravitational force to change the world. Very few etch the ending of an era or the beginning of another like that of D-Day or the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Very few events can unilaterally meet the definition of “pure evil” upon first glance like Hitler’s SS, Imperial Japan, or likes of Lee Harvey Oswald or James Earl Ray. These are the moments that turned the world in ways unfathomable and while their dates reside neatly in our children’s textbooks, one date is too new to consider the friendly confines of a book home; September 11, 2001.
For a generation whose parents can account for their exact whereabouts when Kennedy was shot and man first walked on the moon, I can optimistically contend that most any generation X, Y, or Z’er, for that matter, can plainly and unequivocally relate their exact location when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower at 8:46am. As for me, I was staring blankly at an office TV screen trying to figure out how a pilot made such a drastic mistake. When United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower at 9:03am I knew there was no mistake. And while the official details would take years to report, in the very moments of the disaster you could almost feel the landscape of the world change. Much like an earthquake can alter the land beneath your feet, 911 altered the landscape of the American mind, providing a picture of the evil known only to those who had seen other atrocities in real time.
Roughly 2,914 days have passed since Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda force ended the lives of 2,993 people in New York City, Washington, DC, and a remote field in Pennsylvania. Two wars and eight years later, it is unarguable that the September 11, 2001 attacks were acts of raw evil perpetuated by a pure terrorists rivaling the ranks of Attila, Stalin, Pot, etc. It is horrifying the depths of evil that 19 hijackers and numerous co-conspirators exhibited in their plot to destroy innocent life and alter the course of history. For many in my generation, we awoke with a feeling of loss, finally knowing first hand how quickly precious life can end or change, unsheltered no longer, and bearing the full brunt of a most cruel reality.
In the end, the historical accounts of 911 give me hope that future generations will read about the heroic efforts of those directly involved in the 911 attacks: the men and women who stood vigilant and remained strong helping the victims as the towers fell, the men and women in uniform, the families who cried tears of sorrow for their lost, the soldiers that fought the wars that followed, and everyone who stopped in their tracks, fully grasping the horrible evil perpetuated that perfect September day in 2001 when all perfection was lost, when the textbooks burst open, and the atrocities of men made history yet again.
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