When the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart during liftoff in 1986, it was shocking but not entirely unexpected; space flight is a high-risk endeavor, and history has shown tragedies can happen. Likewise, there will be times when a deranged person takes a shot at a politician.
But who would have thought that foreign terrorists, in a coordinated plan, could hijack four passenger jets on two different airlines using box cutters and fly them into buildings?
That’s what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.
Three of the planes found their mark, two hitting the World Trade Center towers and one striking the Pentagon.
Due to the brave deeds of the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, the hijackers were foiled and the plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The target of that plane was believed to be either the White House or the U.S. Capitol.
I doubt that anyone of age at that time will forget where they were on that day.
Sept. 11 was a Tuesday that year, and I was on my way to work when I heard about the first plane striking the north tower of the World Trade Center. No one could imagine how such a thing could happen, but at the office we were tuned in to live coverage of the event.
The level of shock felt when we saw the second plane hit the south tower was off the scale.
Tuesday, in those days, was the day we prepared the newspaper to be printed. There we were, a locally oriented newspaper with a huge national story that could not be put off.
When it was beyond doubt that the country was the victim of a terrorist attack, my response was to write an editorial basically saying, “Don’t let the terrorists win.”
My thought process was that the people who perpetrated the attack most likely wanted to put us into a state of fear and division, and the best way of fighting back, at least within the means of average Americans, was not to give in. We could fight back by going about our business as usual — go to work, go to school, don’t give in to fear.
Whatever my thoughts on the matter, a remarkable thing happened after the 911 attacks. The country came together in a show of unity like I have never seen. For the most part, we put our political divisions aside and joined hands as Americans.
Three days after the attack, standing on the pile of smoking rubble at the site of the World Trade Center, President George W. Bush, with rescue workers and firefighters around him, took a bull horn and pulled the country together.
“I want you all to know that America today is on bended knee, in prayer for the people whose lives were lost here, for the workers who work here, for the families who mourn. The nation stands with the good people of New York City and New Jersey and Connecticut as we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens,” he said.
One of the rescue workers shouted, “I can’t hear you!”
Bush responded, “I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”
Cheers erupted from the crowd.
Locally, residents found all sorts of ways to pitch in to help the victims of the attack. We had coverage of a local youth football team that raised money to send to New York.
We have people working here at The Community News who were not even born when the 911 attacks occurred. It must be difficult for them, in today’s toxic political climate, to imagine how united the country was 25 years ago.
What the terrorists failed to do that day has, to a large degree, been accomplished by right- and left-wing echo chambers, talk radio, social media, and cable “news.”
It is a shame that it took such a traumatic event in 2001 to unite the country — it is my hope that we can find a way to unite again without one.
Randy Keck is the owner and publisher of The Community News.
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