Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Shanksville : Where 44 Americans Gave the Last Full Measure on 9/11
Shanksville, Pennsylvania, is a tiny town of 250 residents nestled in the hills of Somerset County an hour and a half east of Pittsburgh. It is about the same distance from my hometown. Tuesday, a day before the 12th anniversary of 9/11, workers in Shanksville broke ground on the Flight 93 National Memorial beginning construction on the 6,800-square-foot visitor center that will tell the story of Flight 93. Four hijackers turned the plane toward Washington, D.C., likely targeting the US Capitol building before the plane's 44 passengers and crew stormed the cockpit and tried to regain control. The plane crashed into a field and everyone on board was killed. "Because of the quick and determined actions of the passengers and crew Flight 93 was the only one of the four hijacked aircraft that failed to reach the terrorists' intended target that day," the National Park Service wrote on its website. "The passengers and crew showed unity, courage, and defiance in the face of adversity." ~~~~~ Today, as America reflects on 9/11 and those who died, their families and the rescuers, attention will be focused on the Twin Towers in New York City. But, over the sleepy little hamlet of Shanksville in the tree-covered hills of western Pennsylvania, 44 Americans deliberately gave their lives to save other Ameticans from the fate of those in the Twin Towers. ~~~~~ "Greater love than this hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends."
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Enough said.
ReplyDeleteFrom all of us R.I.P
"I am certain that I speak on behalf of my entire nation when I say: September 11th we are all Americans - in grief, as in defiance."
ReplyDeleteBenjamin Netanyahu
I went to bed last night thinking tomorrow is yet another 9-11. But it's now 12 years down the road. We have by most evaluation got directly even for Ata's gang of misdeeds.
ReplyDeleteBut when i finally a=admitted it was morning after a long night of work - there is was in all it's remembrance ... 9-11 12 years later.
It was as vivid as if it had just happened. I was standing in the Family room (a different one that 12 years ago) with my son watching the names being read off. One by one.
My son and I stood nearly motionless that morning 12 years ago watching in horror (and let me tell you I have seen some real horror in my life) as Tower 1 & 2 got struck and then falling. Watching those people choose jumping to their certain deaths from 80 stories up rather than die in flames or the lack of oxygen to breath. Talk about guts - I don't know if I could have made that choice.
I lived in NYC for 5 years and it's is still part of me or I am part of NYC whichever. I had good and one very bad time there. I left a friend I thought I'd never leave there.I'm glad my friend never saw her lovely city desecrated as it was.
We all have defining moments in our lives that never fades with time ... certainly 9-11-2001 is one of mine. Someone mentions 9-11 and instantly it is all right there in front of me again, just as it was and always will be.
As it is with the Crucifixion, the Concentration camps,the POW's coming proudly home from North Vietnam internment, all the great and desperate faces of history ... they are not to be forgotten are they?
Never forget, never forgive the scoundrels that we have brought to justice over this crime,never harbor ill feeling for those that are not tied to the crime, never punish the all of Islam for what is solely the crime of some few (I hope). Always, always remember. For if we all forget then it never happened ... and it did.
But are we forgetting? I heard on a news channel this morning a reporter remark in Lower Manhattan where the names were being read that there were fewer cameras this year than in years past. Are we forgetting?
ReplyDeleteDeb ... a direct answer YES i think we are. We need to learn from the Israeli about the Holocaust.
ReplyDelete"In any war you either die a hero ... or you come full circle and see yourself become the enemy."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where we fit into this truism right now under President Obama.
There an emptiness today, a stillness that tugs at your soul asking for answers.
ReplyDeleteTwelve years later and it seems that on this day of remembrance and respectful observation of all the innocent victims that suffered so much, the world where these terrorists live and plan their dastardly deeds just continues to go on in their thousand year old existence. A place where nothing changes and nothing but death and disruption matter.
I don't stand nearly as much as I did immediately post 9-11-2001 for an eye for an eye response. This far down the road a response of that nature would only be seen as an act of hatred. But on today I wonder how long the planning stage for 9-11-2001 was. How many years did these barbarous heathens sit around in their expensive hotel rooms that was furnished in part by monies sent "home" from the USA or in their brick and mud homes in some far out village.
I was leaving a parking lot this afternoon and their was this middle eastern women in her black garb getting a computer out of her trunk. S I passed her I thought ... "how dare you even show your face on the streets today in my country". That's terrible I know. But that is exactly how I felt
The severity of what they did is to me unexplainable and unforgivable ever.
WE have gotten through another anniversary of 9-11-2001 without any major incidents from our murderous friends from Terrorists Islam Factions.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a signal from them that they have neither changed their ways or want to be friends. it only means that they have decided that we expect a "hit" during this time every year and therefore they will alter their plans.
DON'T be fooled, don't be unsuspecting, don't be miss led. Instead be very cautious, be suspicious of ALL things that seem out of place, be suspicious of people that don't fit into the crowd.
As As Thomas Jefferson said - "Be vigilant" and be it all the time