Sept 11, 2001, My city New York and my country America was attacked. I took it personal as I believe many of us did. It changed me profoundly forever. I came back to New York City from Los Angeles where I live today and visited Ground Zero that December and I felt the incredible loss and pain but also saw the strength and resilience of Americans and especially my fellow New Yorkers. Hard to believe it has been ten years ago......
There were a total of 2,977 deaths. The victims were distributed as follows: 246 on the four planes (from which there were no survivors), 2,606 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon.
More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Center
It's been 10 years since Sept 11, 2001 and I personally will never forget and hope we always remember....
I have made it a habit to attend a commemoration event on Sept 11 every year since 2002.
It is great to see the 9/11 memorial and the rebuilding of the WTC happening.
Visit here for interactive 9/11 Memorial on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NeverForget911
"America has its faults as a society, as we have ours. But I think of the Union of America born out of the defeat of slavery. I think of its Constitution, with its inalienable rights granted to every citizen still a model for the world. I think of a black man, born in poverty, who became chief of their armed forces and is now secretary of state Colin Powell and I wonder frankly whether such a thing could have happened here. I think of the Statue of Liberty and how many refugees, migrants and the impoverished passed its light and felt that if not for them, for their children, a new world could indeed be theirs. I think of a country where people who do well, don't have questions asked about their accent, their class, their beginnings but have admiration for what they have done and the success they've achieved. I think of those New Yorkers I met, still in shock, but resolute; the fire fighters and police, mourning their comrades but still head held high."
--Prime Minister Tony Blair
"Many heartbreaking things happened after 9/11 and maybe the worst is that there's no heroic statue to them, no big marking of what they were and what they gave, at the new World Trade Center memorial.
But New York will never get over what they did. They live in a lot of hearts.
They tell us to get over it, they say to move on, and they mean it well: We can't bring an air of tragedy into the future. But I will never get over it. To get over it is to get over the guy who stayed behind on a high floor with his friend who was in a wheelchair. To get over it is to get over the woman by herself with the sign in the darkness: "America You Are Not Alone." To get over it is to get over the guys who ran into the fire and not away from the fire.
You've got to be loyal to pain sometimes to be loyal to the glory that came out of it."
-- Peggy Noonan
Tribute to all the victims of 9/11
