Remembering 9/11: Not Only the WTC towers

Five years ago today, I was in a waiting room after getting my alergy shots when I saw the television. No, it wasn't the towers I saw, it was the Pentagon. I had a good friend who had worked at the Pentagon until about a year before the attack. She had a doctor's appointment scheduled there that morning. Apparently, the doctor's office was in the part of the Pentagon where the plane hit. Fortunately, she missed her appointment. Had she not, she would have been dead, incinerated by the blast.

When people remember the terrorist attacks of that fateful day, they seem to forget that the twin towers were not the only structures that were destroyed that day, and the lives lost there were not the sum total of all the lives lost.

I'm not trying to downplay the events of that day. Not in the least. I am simply trying to remind people that yes, a couple thousand people died in those towers, but between the United 93 flight that crashed in a field leaving a 50 foot crater in the ground and the plane that hit the Pentagon, there were at least 1,000 more people who died in those crashes.

About 3,000 people lost their lives that day. They all deserve to be remembered and mourned, not only those who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center towers. Remember and mourn also those who died at the Pentagon and in that field in Pennsylvania aboard United 93. Pray for those who escaped death and survived those attacks. Pray for the families of those who didn't.

United, we stand; divided, we fall. In God we trust. If we forget those who died, if we do not honor their memories, they will be lost forever. Likewise, if we categorize races with the acts of a few members of those races, we lose our ability to stay united, we lose our cultural diversity that binds us together into this great nation in which we live. We lose the wonderful gifts of diversity that God has granted us with.

We need to remember that those who died did not die at the hands of every Muslim person in this world. We need to remember that not all of middle-eastern descent are terrorists, and not all are dangerous. Not even all of middle-eastern descent are Muslim!

Remember those who died, remember those who lived and live still to remember that day. Remember those who are stereotyped as terrorists and are not. Remember that we are STILL Americans, and this is STILL the greatest country in the world. Remember that we must ALL stand together, or we will ALL fall together.

God bless the United States of America, and all her inhabitants.

iiiiiiiiiiiWESTANDUNITED
iiiiiiiiiiiWESTANDUNITED
iiiiiiiiiiiWESTANDUNITED
UNITEDWESTANDUNITE
UNITEDWESTANDUNITE
UNITEDWESTANDUNITE