Remembering 9/11

With the passing of time, the urgency we all felt that awful September day seems to have waned somewhat. Now we are more focused on the inconveniences of air travel that event spawned than on what we as a nation and a people experienced in the first weeks and months following the terrorist attacks.

Not that we should keep the fear and anger foremost on our minds, as that terror-mindset just feeds the cause of the terrorists. That was pointed out in a recent column by Steve Blow in The Dallas Morning News last Sunday. He wrote about the hatred against Islam that is sometimes preached in the pulpit and on the airways, pointing out that most Muslims do not support terrorists, especially the most recent activity by ISIS in Iraq.

Steve quotes Robert Hunt, a professor at SMU's Perkins School of Theology, who wishes that the press would be more interested in spreading the news that many more Muslim nations are condemning the violence than the few who perpetuate terrorism. Unfortunately, the old newspaper adage still prevails, "If it bleeds it leads" and "The fact that Islamic society condemns ISIS isn't news. We only hear about Muslims at war because peace isn't news."

Hunt also offers this comment, "If we want to defeat terrorists, we have to refuse to be terrified. And we have to not spread their fear"

And in honor of this day I want to share this video of the Alan Jackson song, "Where Were You "When the World Stood Still?" I get goosebumps every time I hear it, mainly because the song encourages love, not fear and hate.

Special Wednesday's Guest

On this, the eve of remembering 9/11, I thought it appropriate to have a special guest today, Major Heather Penny. I read about this amazing woman last Sunday in Parade Magazine. In 2001 she was an F-16 pilot with the 121st Fighter Squadron of the D.C. Air National Guard at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

A fact not widely publicized that September day 13 years ago, is that she, along with others in her squad, took to the air, prepared to take down the United Flight 93 if so ordered.

The Secret Service had contacted the air base with orders for the Guard to get airborne, suspecting that there was a fourth plane somewhere headed to Washington. United Flight  93 had gone off radar and it was believed to be in the control of terrorists. While most of the squad were guarding the immediate area around the White House, Penny and her commander were on another mission. Find the United plane and bring it down.As Penny relates in the interview in Parade, "Because we'd just returned from a training mission in Nevada, there weren't any missiles or bombs or high-explosive bullets on the airplanes, and it was going to be a while before the weapons people could get the missiles built up."

This is a fully armed F-16

 That meant there would only be one way to take the plane down. Penny's commander, Col. Marc "Sass" Sasseville told her, "I'll take the cockpit." What he was saying was that he would ram the airliner.

"I knew I would take the tail," Penny says. "If you take the tail off an airplane it cannot fly."

They were unable to locate the United airplane and later learned about the passengers taking control and crashing the plane.  Penny considers those passengers as some of the heroes of that day, not her. "They averted further tragedy, confusion, and chaos and thwarted those who would do our nation harm."

The drama of that part of the day played out like the best of suspense fiction, but it wasn't fiction. What a tremendous amount of courage it took to force the terrorists to crash the plane in a rural area in Pennsylvania. Countless lives were saved by that act of bravery on the part of the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93, and they were true heroes.

About her own act of bravery, Penny says that there was nothing special or unique about what she did, and was willing to do. "If I hadn't been there, another airman would have been, and just as honorably done their duty." 

That may be true, but the point is, it wasn't another airman who joined the commander and took to the sky that day with the intent of crashing into a rogue plane. It was Heather Penny, and I salute her as a special strong woman of courage. Raise a glass with me.

Here is Heather "Lucky" Penny's story in The Washington Post.
If you'd like a joke or two to get you over the hump, visit The Blood Red Pencil where I have some jokes for and about writers.

Remembering 9/11

To some people it might seem like all we do is open wounds to have them bleed again by remembering these horrific events. It's better to just pack it all away and forget about it and get on with the healing. That is the same approach that many take to the grieving process in general. When we lose someone we love, get over it.

Problem is, we don't get over it. A loss is always there. That person is missing from our lives and we never forget that fact. We may learn to live with that fact, and even enjoy life despite that loss, but there is no getting over it.

And there should be no getting over the horrors of genocide, slavery, mass murders, the Holocaust, the Trail of Tears, Wounded Knee, or 9/11. Memorials should stand in memory of those who died, as well as reminders that at times humanity is sometimes its own worst enemy.

So I am remembering 9/11 with sadness for those who lost their lives, respect for those who gave their lives to save others, and for all the families directly touched by those losses. I am also remembering with anger for all those who use religion as a basis for deciding to commit such horrible acts of terrorism.

Not long after 9/11 Alan Jackson recorded the song, Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning, and every time I hear the song still, it touches me deeply.  I thought it appropriate to have a link to the song today.

Friday's Odds and Ends

In Texas the speed limit is going to be raised to 75mph on interstate highways. That means that all the drivers who currently go 80 to 90 in the 70mph zone will now feel free to bump that up by another ten. And this is good for us, how?

Here are some facts from a Highway Research Center  to consider:  A 2002 study by researchers at the Land Transport Safety Authority of New Zealand evaluated the effects of increasing rural interstate speed limits from 65 mph to either 70 or 75 mph. Based on deaths in states that did not change their speed limits, states that increased speed limits to 75 mph experienced 38 percent more deaths per million vehicle miles traveled than expected — an estimated 780 more deaths. States that increased speed limits to 70 mph experienced a 35 percent increase, resulting in approximately 1,100 more deaths.

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 nears, there is much talk about what is wrong with planned memorial events. It appears that first responders will not be invited to ceremonies at Ground Zero that day because there is not enough room for them. According to the NY governor and NYC mayor this is about the families of those lives lost that day and the focus should be on them. I'm curious. Are the families of the fallen firefighters and other first responders invited?

This is a very short-sighted decision, as was the one that pledged billions of federal dollars to build a memorial at the site of Ground Zero that includes 1World Trade Center at a price tag of $3.3 billion.

As NY Times columnist, Joe Nocera pointed out in a recent column, yes, the dead need to be remembered, but at what cost to the rest of a nation that was also traumatized by the horrific events of that September day 10 years ago? This new skyscraper at Ground Zero is the most expensive building ever erected and "will have 2.6 million square feet of office space in a city that doesn't need it at a cost that is so high that it will be a cash drain for many years."

And if that isn't enough to make one stop and ask who is in charge of this nonsense, the new building will affect commuters who use the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency overseeing the building of the skyscraper, will raise tolls on the bridges and tunnels it controls, and by 2015 it could easily cost a commuter over $60 dollars a week to drive back and forth to work.

According to Nocera's column, the publishing giant, Conda Nast, is going to be the anchor tenant in the new building and will benefit from substantial government subsidies. "And who will be paying for that subsidy? The mail room attendants who use the Lincoln Tunnel to get to work."

On a slightly lighter note, there is talk of closing the tunnels in downtown Dallas.  Apparently this is someone's idea of a way to revitalize downtown by making people visit stores above ground. Has that person walked a downtown street on a summer afternoon or a blustery day in January when the wind could blow you to the next corner? If people want to revitalize downtown, why not revitalize the tunnels so people can stroll and shop in comfort?

What are your thoughts on these topics, or any other news item that raised your blood pressure this week?

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Remembering...

Very few people in the world were not touched by the events of 9/11, some more deeply than others. For those of us in the United States we will probably never forget where we were that morning and what we were doing.

I was getting ready for work, putting the finishing touches on my makeup and about to head out the door when my daughter called to tell me to turn on the television.

At first I wasn't sure what I was seeing and we both watched in horror as the second plane hit. I was stunned. Not even sure I could go to work, but I had to. I was working as a chaplain in a hospital at the time and I thought of all the patients who were feeling the emotional impact of this tragedy on top of the hardships they were already experiencing. If ever they needed a chaplain it was that day.

So I went to work.

There's a great country song by Alan Jackson that seems appropriate for today "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?" 

Every time I hear that song I cry a little more.

Let us not Forget

Sometimes as we are distanced from tragedy the memories dim somewhat. That's a normal human reaction, a way of dealing with pain and grief.

Now, nine years after that horrible day in September when we saw planes crash into buildings and thousands of people die, the images are not as crisp in my mind as they were a year or two years ago.

On one hand that is a good thing, as that deep ache I used to feel is not as heavy as it once was. But on the other hand, I want to cling to the feelings of intense patriotism that tragedy instilled in me and people all across the country. We were united in our anguish and our purpose.

And that is what I wish we all could focus on in these troubled economic and political times. United we can do great things. Divided we will fail. And we do not honor the memory of the dead by failing.