2,977 victims but millions affected
By Amy Hutchinson · Contributing Writer
I clearly remember the first time I learned about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It was my fourth birthday, Sept. 11, 2011, exactly 10 years after the attacks. A magazine with photographs from that day was on the table. I asked my mom why the skyscrapers in the picture were on fire, and she explained to me the horrible events of 9/11 in censored, careful language. Still, my little heart understood the tragedy. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I exclaimed, pressing an accusatory finger onto the page:
“This is the biggest example of sin I have ever seen!”
My impassioned, juvenile words continue to ring true for many Americans, 15 years later, on the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in human history.
My sister lived one block away from Ground Zero when she attended college in New York City. A year later, after first learning about 9/11, my family visited my sister and went to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. I remember that visit well.
On display were massive, contorted steel beams salvaged from the wreckage. My dad explained to me that his dad, my papa, was a draftsman who helped design the beams used to build the World Trade Center. He pointed to the smudged name on the beam, Alton Steel, the company my papa worked for, a steel mill in rural Illinois. Later, my dad showed me the World Trade Center blueprints my papa had saved.
I remember a room full of TV screens that my older siblings went into, while my mom waited outside with my little sister and me. She said I was too young to go in there and that one day I would understand. Looking back, I realize that was the room that showed footage of the jumpers, who decided falling to their death was better than suffocation or burning alive.
There was a wall that looked a hundred feet tall to me, covered in thousands of squares, all different shades of blue. Each square represented one victim. 2,977 squares. 2,977 lives. I could not fathom that amount of death.
In another room, a large screen displayed the picture and a short biography of the children who died. I focused on an 11-year-old named Asia Cottom. She died on Flight 77, when it hit the Pentagon. I couldn’t imagine dying.
What I have realized about Sept. 11 is that everyone is connected to it. Many lost loved ones; others witnessed it. Adults alive at the time remember exactly where they were and what they felt when they learned the news. Even we, those who were not yet born, are connected to this national trauma.
Sept. 11, 2001 permanently altered American history. A new age of warfare was born, air travel changed forever, security tightened to lengths unknown to Americans and suspicion and new fears were instilled in American life and politics.
America was both strengthened and weakened by the events of 9/11. Immediately after the events of 9/11, America experienced a unanimous surge of unity. As a country, we rallied in solidarity with one another.
As kids who grew up during the COVID-19 pandemic, witnessed the “Summer of Love” BLM riots and lived through the age of social media, national unity seems an impossible, idealistic fairy tale. If a tragedy such as 9/11 happened today, could our country unite, or would we find a way to further the divide?
For many, it is hard to be optimistic. We can imagine the voices that believe America deserves to be attacked, and we can imagine the people who would rather debate conspiracies than deal with facts.
As we remember 9/11, we cannot allow these divisions to cloud our compassion. Debate the conspiracy theories, discuss geopolitics, converse about ethics and endless wars — tomorrow. Today we remember the victims. Our fellow American citizens who died in horrific, heroic ways. 2,977 lives.
Take a moment of silence, watch a witness interview, read an article from that day, plant flags. Speak reverently about the events just for today, out of respect for the 2,977 victims who died and the millions more who were and are affected. Remember, almost everyone you see today has been, in some way, impacted by that fateful day.
Let us not, however, go to bed tonight in despair or dread. Let us instead meditate on Psalm 46:5-7:
“God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
