ESPN columnist Rick Reilly writes about the heroes of United Flight 93, which went down on September 11, 2001 near Shanksville, Pa., as the doomed passengers took control of the jetliner from the jihadists and forced it down. Flight 93′s likely target was in Washington, D.C., either the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
The first battle in the renewed war against terrorism wasn’t waged in Fallujah or Kandahar or Tikrit. It was held 32,000 feet above Pittsburgh, on Sept. 11, 2001.
And it wasn’t soldiers who led the battle.
It was four athletes, pushing a food cart.
One of the heroes of Flight 93 was Todd Beamer, of the iconic “Let’s roll.” Reilly talked to Beamer’s father, David:
“This was the first victory of the war,” says David Beamer. “The Capitol dome still stands.”
This is actual audio of a 9-1-1 call placed from inside the World Trade Center after the jihadist attacks on September 11, 2001. The caller is a man named Kevin Cosgrove and he is trapped on the 105th floor of the South Tower.
His remains were recovered from the rubble of the collapsed South Tower. You can hear his vocal reaction when the Tower collapses: “Oh God! Oh …!!”
We saw it on display yesterday at the Flight 93 Memorial ceremony.
We also saw on here during the 2004 campaign (H/T to HillBuzz), when President Bush reached out to comfort a 15-year-old girl who lost her mother on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center attacks.
In a moment largely unnoticed by the throngs of people in Lebanon waiting for autographs from the president of the United States, George W. Bush stopped to hold a teenager’s head close to his heart.
Lynn Faulkner, his daughter, Ashley, and their neighbor, Linda Prince, eagerly waited to shake the president’s hand Tuesday at the Golden Lamb Inn. He worked the line at a steady campaign pace, smiling, nodding and signing autographs until Prince spoke:
“This girl lost her mom in the World Trade Center on 9-11.”
Bush stopped and turned back.
“He changed from being the leader of the free world to being a father, a husband and a man,” Faulkner said. “He looked right at her and said, ‘How are you doing?’ He reached out with his hand and pulled her into his chest.”
Faulkner snapped one frame with his camera.
“I could hear her say, ‘I’m OK,’ ” he said. “That’s more emotion than she has shown in 21/2 years. Then he said, ‘I can see you have a father who loves you very much.’ “
“And I said, ‘I do, Mr. President, but I miss her mother every day.’ It was a special moment.”
Contrast that with the Narcissist-in-Chief. I just cannot visualize Barack Hussein Obama doing anything even remotely similar to what President Bush did. Unlike Bush, Our Lord and Savior cares only about Himself (and His job). He’d probably have told Ashley to eat her peas, or told her dad to trade in his vehicle for an electric car (or at least make sure his tires were properly inflated), all the while lecturing them about how spreading the wealth around would help their lives.
We honored her on the other blog as part of the Project 2996, honoring each victim of September 11, 2001 attacks. Seeing as no one else had picked up the baton, we thought it would be appropriate to do so again.
Catherine Patricia Salter was one of the 2,996 Americans who went about their normal business on that Tuesday, never realizing that it would be their last day on earth, their lives snuffed out by an evil almost unprecedented in human history.
On the P.O.W. Blog, you can read a discussion about Catherine Patricia Salter between Charles Franklin and Cathy’s brother, Bud, recollecting personal memories and the impact of that horrible day on those left behind.
Here’s the memorial to Cathy in Wellsville, Ohio, her hometown:
You can also check out the Remembering Cathy Salter Facebook page here.
Anheuser-Busch created this ad to pay tribute to the 2,996 victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It aired only once, since the company did not want to profit from the ad:
The events of 9/11 set to narration and the music of Chip Davis and Mannheim Steamroller.
Contrast this with the hate and exclusion of New York City Mayor Bloomingidiot, who went out of his way to try to ban prayer and clergy and God Himself from the 10th anniversary commemoration of the 9/11 attacks.
Silly Mayor, you cannot ban God from anything. He is there, whether you want Him or not.
No matter how hard we try, these images can never be stricken from our memories and our consciousness … no matter how hard the American hating Left and state run media try:
No matter how the anti-American Left tries to hijack the events of 9/11 for its own perverted agenda, Americans will always remember what happened and who was responsible.
America had a President, one of whom we could be proud:
Here was President Bush in his first public address after the attacks:
We saw that leadership and class on display today, 10 years since that horrible day in September 2001:
Watching as much of the 9/11 related programming as I have been able to watch over the past week, it brought back a flood of memories and emotions from that day and the days that followed. Knowing that hundreds of people were on those planes and never had a chance is almost too much to handle even 10 years later. Same with the sight of people jumping to their deaths from 100 stories above the ground. Listening to audio of bodies hitting the surface is chilling.
I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news that not one but two jetliners had flown directly into the World Trade Center. I was teaching 6th grade at St. Mark School in Kenosha. I had just got back from taking my class to the gym for physical education. It was a beautiful day and the kids would be going outside to adjacent Lincoln Park for class. I was at my desk doing some paperwork when the custodian came into the door of the room to tell me that the World Trade Center had been attacked by two jetliners, one being slammed into each tower. There was a small TV in their office and everyone that wasn’t in a classroom was in there watching the news.
As soon as I heard the news, before I had left my room, I knew instinctively what it was: a terrorist attack. Watching the images of the second plane hitting the south tower on live TV was breathtaking. The closest thing I can think to compare it to was the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy, on live TV by Jack Ruby and that doesn’t come close enough.
I had maybe 20 minutes to collect myself and figure out what we were going to do. Fortunately, the school principal was way ahead of the game and very resourceful. We met briefly in her office, which was across the hall from my room, and decided that the traditional lesson plans for at least the morning up until lunch would be put aside as wel tried to help the students deal with what had happened. The school decided to tell the students in 4th through 6th grade what had happened and handle it differently with the younger grades, leaving that task up to the parents.
I spent most of that day explaining what had happened and fielding questions from students about the events. I had never experienced a watershed day such as this, although I do know some from history. Most Americans who were alive and cognizant of their surroundings can tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Same with Nov. 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was shot. Likewise, with July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.
I don’t remember the drive home from school that day. I do remember turning on the TV to Fox News and watching the nonstop coverage until I couldn’t stay awake any longer.
I am saddened not only by watching the footage all over again, but also by the fact that as a nation we’ve gone back to a 9/10 mentality, that there are evil people who want to see us harmed and killed yet want to either pretend to ignore it or, worse, bow and scrape to them and make nice as if to say, “See? We’re not that bad” in hopes they will like us. For those of you from the World War II generation, that is called appeasement. Worse, we have a candidate for President in 2012 who thinks America brought 9/11 on itself and shockingly his name is not Barack Hussein Obama (although no doubt he does as well). We’re willing to tolerate molestation by TSA thugs, Gestapo-like procedures aimed at ordinary Americans because of political correctness, all the while jihadist sympathizers whine and cry because the feds are listening into the phone calls of jihadists in other countries.
We have a Community Organizer in Chief so hellbent on obfuscating what happened 10 years ago that He wants to transform (fundamentally, no doubt, like everything else) 9/11 into a day of community organizing and do-gooderism. We have New York City Mayor Bloomingidiot banning all prayer, clergy, police, fire fighters and other first responders from the ceremonies for fear of offending … those who planned and carried out the attacks. We have the aggressors of 9/11 wanting to build a victory monument at Ground Zero, the site of their biggest conquest to date, and appeasement monkeys from Ron Paul to Mayor Bloomingidiot to Our Lord and Savior supporting their efforts.
If we forget what happened that day, God help us all.
I think Ken Gardner put it best on his Facebook page:
Lessons of 9/11: philosophically, good and evil exist, and we must learn how to tell the difference. Evil acts begin with evil ideas under evil philosophies or ideologies. We might fight, above all, on intellectual grounds. That there is no reasoning or compromising between good and evil. One must prevail. It better be us. Politically, that there is no substitute for a strong military, strong intelligence gathering, strong border security, and a proactive approach to tracking down terrorists.
From I Own The World, if you choose to watch Our Lord and Savior’s campaign speech tonight brought down from the mountain, you can play Barack’s Bullshit Bingo right along with it:
