For every generation of Americans for the past near-century, there have been seminal events for which those who were of a certain age can recall “where they were” when they “heard the news.”
Every member of the Greatest Generation could recall with vivid clarity the announcement by President Roosevelt of the Day of Infamy of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. A generation later, everyone knew where they were when the announcement of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy came across our TV screens. A generation after that, the Challenger space shuttle disaster riveted our nation.
And then, on September 11, 2001, every American watched with horror and disbelief as the Twin Towers of the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C. came under attack from a terrorist organization we barely knew existed.
In each case, long-held views about our world and our nation were shattered. Before Pearl Harbor, we had thought that the thousands of miles of oceans separating us from the warlords of Europe and Asia would keep us out of harm’s way. John F. Kennedy’s assassination made us realize that history could be altered by a single bullet. The Challenger disaster made us aware that despite three decades of travel in space and despite our prowess in the realm of technology, in the end, everything we do as humans is subject to failure, because that is the human condition.
As we viewed the images on our TV screens on 9/11 of the fireballs in the upper parts of the Twin Towers, and then watched with horror and disbelief as those skyscrapers crumbled, trapping thousands of our fellow Americans, we realized that America no longer was insulated from the sort of outside terrorist threats that had plagued almost every other country the world over.
Every American knew that our lives would be different from that point onward.
However, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attack, it became clear that countless of our fellow Americans responded with incredible strength and bravery. Police officers and firefighters responded fearlessly without regard to the impending danger to their own safety in order to save the lives of their fellow Americans.
A total of 343 firefighters and 71 police officers perished when the towers crumbled, and hundreds more suffered lifelong illnesses because of the toxic air they inhaled while searching for survivors both that day and beyond.
There were many civilian heroes as well, most notably the “young man with the red bandana” who led occupants of the towers to safety and the passengers who thwarted the hijacking of the plane that was headed for the White House when it crashed into Pennsylvania farm fields.
The events of 9/11 deeply affected the Boston area. The two planes that struck the Twin Towers, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11, took off from Logan Airport that fateful morning, carrying a total of 147 crew and passengers who mainly were from our area, including American flight attendant Kathleen Nicosia from Winthrop and United employee Marianne MacFarlane (who was headed for a vacation) from Revere. Their names and those of all of the passengers and crew are marked on the 9/11 memorial at Logan which is located just outside of Terminal A.
It is hard to believe that 25 years have passed since 9/11, and even harder to conceive that there are millions of a younger generation of Americans who have been born since that day and who have no first-hand knowledge of that tragic event.
So let us resolve to remind ourselves, and to inform the young people we know, that this was a day not merely of great tragedy, but that it also was a day of great heroism that exemplified the best of what America stands for.