It was 12 years ago this morning that terrorists used airplanes as weapons of mass destruction to bring down the Twin Towers and crash into the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, when passengers rushed the terrorists in the cockpit.
September 11th conjured up memories of Pearl Harbor, but that was an attack on a military base designed to neutralize the Pacific fleet. As dastardly and destructive as it was, the attack still had a military objective and targeted primarily uniformed soldiers.
9/11 was meant to be more symbolic than strategic. Terrorists murdered innocent civilians in workplaces that epitomized economic and military strength. It was not a fatal blow—the country is too strong for that–but we were deeply wounded.
Remembering is essential to the ongoing recovery.
The construction of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum continues at ground zero. An integral part of the memorial will be an exhibition with portraits of the nearly 3,000 men, women and children who died on 9/11.
Memorial and museum Director Alice Greenwald says the individual pictures convey the scope of the loss.
“In remembering the victims of the attacks and honoring those who went to their rescue, the Museum will explore the very real impact of terrorism in the lives of very real people, and their families, friends, colleagues and communities,” writes Greenwald on the 9/11 Memorial website.
Greenwald says by visiting the museum and looking at the pictures, others can bear witness to the true cost of terrorism.
“This Museum will do nothing less than underscore the absolute illegitimacy of indiscriminate murder,” Greenwald writes.
Because the attacks targeted innocent civilians, the victims could have been any of us. This was an assault on all people who value the nation’s principles.
We should be reminded on this day to be firm in our resolve against purveyors of terror while also remaining committed to our duty as citizens to be faithful to our country, especially when it is under attack.
This is the debt owed by current and future generations to the victims of 9/11.