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September 11, 2005
Sep. 11th, 2005 01:33 pmIt has been four years since the morning we all woke up to a different world. It has been four years since everything changed. Four years and one day before, we all went to sleep in our beds knowing that our world, that our country, was a safe place. We always knew there were problems, and we knew it wasn't perfect, but we always had the notion that on our own soil, we would be safe; we were untouchable. We awoke the next day to find that reality shattered. The world was not as it had been. Suddenly, we were suspicious of the people who were our neighbors. Suddenly, we knew that we were not invincible, and suddenly we were afraid.
Four years ago, four planes were highjacked. Two planes hit New York and killed thousands. One hit the pentagon and killed hundreds. A little more than a dozen people overtook the last plane, bravely losing their lives to prevent more senseless deaths. The world had become a dangerous place to all of us.
Four years after that event, we all try to understand why it had to happen. We still ponder it, we still remember this day. We still mourn. We will always mourn. Just as those who remember Pearl Harbor will always mourn it, so will those of us who went to bed in one world and woke up the next day in another. We will remember because it made us different. We will remember because of the loved ones lost. We will remember because of the sacrafices made.
I will remember because God was in it. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it is easy to blame God, or worse, to deny God at all. When we see such destruction, it is so easy to say that there was only evil in this. I see a different story. The morning of September 11, 2001, hundreds of commuter trains were running late. Thousands of people were stuck in traffic in NYC and D.C. Hundreds, for some reason, abandoned their usual commutes and slept in a few more minutes. Some people experienced mix ups and were, for some divine reason, not on those planes.
"On September 11, 2001 [Seth MacFarlane] was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11 after being a keynote speaker at his alma-mater in Rhode Island. Due to a mix-up by his travel agent he was told that his flight was scheduled to depart at 8:15am but it really departed at 7:45am and he had arrived at Boston Logan Airport a few minutes after boarding was stopped on his flight and he was told he would have to wait for the next flight. At 8:45am one hour after the departure of American Airlines Flight 11 it was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into One World Trade Center (North Tower) in New York City killing all onboard." -IMDB
That morning, my dad's cousin walked out onto the lawn of the Pentagon to have a snack and get some air. He saw the third plane streak through the sky and hit his end of the building.
That morning, seemingly random events such as this occurred enough times to empty those planes from their usual multiple hundred capacities to fewer than two or three dozen on each. Those buildings were empty in comparison to how they could have been. That day, ten thousands of people could have died. We lost 2,000. It is tragic that people died. It is always tragic when people die, but look what it has done. Instead of a nation carefree, we became aware. Instead of a nation under self, we became a nation under God. Relief efforts poured in. More volunteers than the authorities could handle went to NYC to help search the rubble. Millions of people poured into churches to hold prayer vigils for those lost or the families of the missing. Love and kindness poured out of humanity for the first time in years. Some say the attacks brought out the worst in some people, and that may be true, but when you look at the good it brought out in others, you can't tell me that this was for nothing. People died, which is horrible, but even in the darkest times, when it seems that Satan has the upper hand, God is there.
I will remember September 11th for as long as I live. I will remember waking up to my crying mother watching the towers burn and collapse. I will remember running to the internet to make sure my friends and their families are safe. I will remember crying, wondering if my brother would be drafted for the war that was sure to come. But most of all, I remember church, I remember the full service of people weeping and praying and singing together, praising God through the tragedy. God is always with us, and I think that He is never more visible than in the wake of a deadly disaster.
Four years ago, four planes were highjacked. Two planes hit New York and killed thousands. One hit the pentagon and killed hundreds. A little more than a dozen people overtook the last plane, bravely losing their lives to prevent more senseless deaths. The world had become a dangerous place to all of us.
Four years after that event, we all try to understand why it had to happen. We still ponder it, we still remember this day. We still mourn. We will always mourn. Just as those who remember Pearl Harbor will always mourn it, so will those of us who went to bed in one world and woke up the next day in another. We will remember because it made us different. We will remember because of the loved ones lost. We will remember because of the sacrafices made.
I will remember because God was in it. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it is easy to blame God, or worse, to deny God at all. When we see such destruction, it is so easy to say that there was only evil in this. I see a different story. The morning of September 11, 2001, hundreds of commuter trains were running late. Thousands of people were stuck in traffic in NYC and D.C. Hundreds, for some reason, abandoned their usual commutes and slept in a few more minutes. Some people experienced mix ups and were, for some divine reason, not on those planes.
"On September 11, 2001 [Seth MacFarlane] was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11 after being a keynote speaker at his alma-mater in Rhode Island. Due to a mix-up by his travel agent he was told that his flight was scheduled to depart at 8:15am but it really departed at 7:45am and he had arrived at Boston Logan Airport a few minutes after boarding was stopped on his flight and he was told he would have to wait for the next flight. At 8:45am one hour after the departure of American Airlines Flight 11 it was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into One World Trade Center (North Tower) in New York City killing all onboard." -IMDB
That morning, my dad's cousin walked out onto the lawn of the Pentagon to have a snack and get some air. He saw the third plane streak through the sky and hit his end of the building.
That morning, seemingly random events such as this occurred enough times to empty those planes from their usual multiple hundred capacities to fewer than two or three dozen on each. Those buildings were empty in comparison to how they could have been. That day, ten thousands of people could have died. We lost 2,000. It is tragic that people died. It is always tragic when people die, but look what it has done. Instead of a nation carefree, we became aware. Instead of a nation under self, we became a nation under God. Relief efforts poured in. More volunteers than the authorities could handle went to NYC to help search the rubble. Millions of people poured into churches to hold prayer vigils for those lost or the families of the missing. Love and kindness poured out of humanity for the first time in years. Some say the attacks brought out the worst in some people, and that may be true, but when you look at the good it brought out in others, you can't tell me that this was for nothing. People died, which is horrible, but even in the darkest times, when it seems that Satan has the upper hand, God is there.
I will remember September 11th for as long as I live. I will remember waking up to my crying mother watching the towers burn and collapse. I will remember running to the internet to make sure my friends and their families are safe. I will remember crying, wondering if my brother would be drafted for the war that was sure to come. But most of all, I remember church, I remember the full service of people weeping and praying and singing together, praising God through the tragedy. God is always with us, and I think that He is never more visible than in the wake of a deadly disaster.
