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Let’s Never Forget September 11, 2001
Townhall.com ^ | September 11, 2020 | Susan Stamper Brown

Posted on 09/11/2020 4:10:51 AM PDT by Kaslin

Life is messy and full of unexpected twists and turns, leaving even the most obsessive control freaks among us feeling undone, mostly because much of the change introduced into our lives is rarely invited and not always pleasant.

I speak with a bit of experience, after an involuntary catapult from “happily ever after” into “till death do us part” at approximately 9:30 a.m. on September 12, 2001—when the SUV I was in hydroplaned and collided head-on with a semi-trailer truck. We didn’t plan to drive, but our flight got canceled because of the terrorist attacks the day before.

In the days following, while most Americans sat in shock with their eyes glued to their TVs watching replays of the planes going into the Twin Towers, I was shopping for a casket, planning a funeral, and dealing with broken bones and a broken heart.

Those of us left behind tend to cling to our loved one’s last gifts, last words…last everything. My husband’s last words were “I love you,” and the last piece of advice, “Take a deep breath…just inhale.” Inhale, I did, and it’s as if part of me has inhaled ever since.

However, this isn’t all about me.

Many good Americans boarded planes on what began as an ordinary Tuesday, September 11, 2001, bound for destinations across the country, but they never arrived. Instead, their trip and their lives ended as abruptly as my husband’s life would the next day.

Most had no idea the goodbyes they shared with loved ones that morning would be their last. Nor did the rest of us realize the savage acts of a malevolent few would change America forever.

We united against the evil that perpetrated the gruesome scenes we witnessed—when fellow Americans had to make an inconceivable choice about how they would die that morning. Some chose skull-splitting skyscraper-to-sidewalk jumps, while others decided to stay in the towers only to be charred alive in a steel-melting inferno. Some chose to sit and silently pray while others said, “Let’s roll” and fought the Islamic terrorists on hijacked planes destined to crash and burn.

While the stench and smoke rose from the human infirmaries, the skies were painted a charcoal gray as a black cloud of grief settled over most American hearts.

Our enemies celebrated.

And, for oh so brief a moment, American patriotism was resurrected from Ground Zero’s ashes when flags intermingled with homemade “Never Forget” signs sprang up on street corners and front yards across America.

After the 2000 presidential election, the nasty partisan divide was temporarily patched with the bandage of brotherhood, as our nation swallowed a bitter pill of truth: We were at war with extremists who attacked us when we were distracted and weak from political divisiveness.

As we mended our wounds, time seemed to stand still in many ways. The sun continued to rise and fall; the seasons changed, and we moved forward—although it seemed inappropriate.

But that was then.

How did we go from bi-partisan, two-mile-long lines to donate blood at Ground Zero to Democrats completely losing their minds over the election of Donald Trump? Like the September 11, 2001 terrorists, Democrats crave power at any cost and are doing their best to seize it by any means possible, including making useful idiots out of Biden voters who raze our cities and terrorize everyday Americans.

Democrats are trying to “rebuild America from the ground-up” like former President Barack Obama promised during his reelection campaign. But you cannot build something from the “ground-up” unless there is a “ground zero.” Like the events of 9/11, the “ground zero” Democrats seek is shocking, explosive and cataclysmic. And that’s what we see plastered over the TV screen every night. It all seems out of control and out of our hands.

Such is life, but presidents have the unique opportunity to actually do something about some of those out-of-control situations like President Trump did at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic--when he quickly instituted unprecedented travel restrictions, overhauled the testing system and ramped-up the production and purchase of PPE supplies and ventilators—while simultaneously keeping the entire country from mass-panic with his calming words and exemplary leadership.

In the years leading up to and shortly after 9/11, key presidential decisions would affect this country for decades.

Consider: Had former President Bill Clinton seized the moment and taken out Osama bin Laden, there’d be no 9/11. And if George W. Bush refused to allow for the enhanced interrogation of 9/11 mastermind and Guantanamo Bay detainee, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, which led special operations forces to bin Laden’s Pakistan compound—Obama wouldn’t have gotten bin Laden. (Nor would he if he’d listened to his then-Vice President Joe Biden.

There’s a lesson to learn here. The modern Democratic Party cannot be trusted with the levers of national (or local) power. We need a September 12th mentality in this divided country, but Democrats will stop at nothing to keep us from it.

We must get back to the basics before it’s too late. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, the “world will soon forget you…when you are thus numbered with those who have no part in all that is done under the sun, when in the places where your foot was familiar it is no more known and all trace of you is obliterated as tho’ it had never been, shall you also forget as you are forgotten.”

May we never forget—until that day we are forgotten.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: september11

1 posted on 09/11/2020 4:10:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I was doing 12-hour shifts in Rockefeller plaza on September 13th.

it took 5 hours and mostly walking from Staten island to Manhattan over the Bayonne bridge and then getting over to lower Manhattan and walking up.

Many of us had the attitude that we couldn’t let them win by shutting us down.

But that’s when we had one of the greatest Mayors in New York City history and not a Marxist monster with a lesbian wife that is raping our coffers.

What a nightmare the whole thing was. Friends lost. Families ruined.

But we didn’t watch to give up.

If that happened now the Blasio would shut down the city until 2027

Times change


2 posted on 09/11/2020 4:16:45 AM PDT by dp0622 (I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE COVID GODFATHER, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. YOU CAN ACT LIKE A MAN!)
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To: Kaslin

My heart is heavy on this day September 11th as I clearly remember the actions of the animals in New York the Pentagon and the 4th that went down only because the passengers fought and sacrificed themselves. The political dictation since as to how we should act toward the aggressors to me is beyond absurd as the situation is still the same with only one massive difference , Donald John Trump .


3 posted on 09/11/2020 4:23:27 AM PDT by mythenjoseph
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To: Kaslin

The weather this morning reminds me of that day. Sunny with a touch of fall in the air.


4 posted on 09/11/2020 4:27:10 AM PDT by McGruff (Polls are for dancing)
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To: Kaslin
There’s a lesson to learn here.

The lesson that "useful idiots" in the West haven't learned is that for nearly 1400 years Islam has been and remains a religion intent on subduing the world through deceipt, violence and war. In the words of Turkey PM Edrogen, "There is no moderate Islam, only Islam".

The Quran contains at least 109 verses that speak of war with nonbelievers, usually on the basis of their status as non-Muslims. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.

Re: https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx

Our compromise with Islam has been and will continue to be to our hurt. .

5 posted on 09/11/2020 4:33:21 AM PDT by JesusIsLord
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To: JesusIsLord

Islam is demonic.


6 posted on 09/11/2020 4:46:48 AM PDT by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
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To: Kaslin

Never Forget.

We are sorry for your loss, which was more personal , more local, and no less devastating.


7 posted on 09/11/2020 4:49:23 AM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis deplorable. WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE)
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To: drSteve78

Just so you know I am not the author


8 posted on 09/11/2020 4:55:23 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: McGruff

I just looked out the window. It’s very gray outside here. It started as such a beautiful day. The sky was so blue that morning as I boarded the train.


9 posted on 09/11/2020 5:08:21 AM PDT by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: Taxman

Ping


10 posted on 09/11/2020 5:12:35 AM PDT by Taxman (MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AGAIN!)
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To: Kaslin

We will NEVER forget. God bless the USA.


11 posted on 09/11/2020 5:20:05 AM PDT by LoL_lady (Traitors inside the walls are always worse than the barbarians at the gates.)
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To: Kaslin

Personally? Never imagined I’d still be working/living in the D.C. area; but, 19 years minus the 2 years in Afghanistan - here I am.


12 posted on 09/11/2020 5:33:05 AM PDT by dakine
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To: Kaslin

The OTHER 9/11

Today is the 8th anniversary of the terrorist attack on our American embassy in Libya that Barack Obaam, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Susan Rice lied about.

Lie lie lie

Of course Hillary shared the detail with Chelsea that it WAS a terrorist attack on the very day that it occurred so there goes any claims to “confusion” or “national security” reason for the lie.

Ask Joe Biden about Benghazi today. What did he know and when did he know it and how did he feel about his Master lying about it and raving about a Youtube video?


13 posted on 09/11/2020 6:24:55 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Joe Biden- "First thing I'd do is repeal those Trump tax cuts." (May 4th, 2019))
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To: Kaslin

Unity lasted 2 weeks then bill clinton condemned the United States and blamed America.


14 posted on 09/11/2020 7:17:10 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (homeless guy. He just has more money....He the master will plant more cotton for the democrat party)
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To: minnesota_bound

William Jefferson Clinton was given Bin Ladin on a silver platter, but he ignored it because he had “better” things to do.


15 posted on 09/11/2020 8:17:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: minnesota_bound
Correction to previous post.

William Jefferson was offered Bin Laden on a silver platter by the Sudanese Government

16 posted on 09/11/2020 8:26:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I’ll Never Forget!

I’ll Never Forgive!


17 posted on 09/11/2020 11:18:13 AM PDT by Taxman (MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AGAIN!)
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