I imagine most of us remember where we were or what we were doing on September 11th, 2001.
Around 7:50 a.m. while driving to work, the morning newscast blared over the radio that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. As soon as I arrived at the office, I ran in and flicked on the TV to see the live broadcast of a massive hole in one of the towers caused by the plane’s impact minutes before. As fellow co-workers gathered in the small conference room, we couldn’t peel our eyes away from the screen. Black smoke billowed out of the building, soon engulfed by flames.
We heard what our ears didn’t want to hear and continued to see images that will forever be etched in our minds. My insides plummeted as I saw a second plane hit the other tower. Buildings collapsed minutes later and we all gasped in horror knowing that hundreds—thousands—lost their lives.
My heart went out to those who lost loved ones on that fatal day.
That same evening, President Bush spoke powerful words: “Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended.”
Freedom isn’t free, I thought, and freedom is worth any cost.
(Excerpt from “Running in Heels: A Memoir of Grit and Grace,” chapter 43.)
May our presidents keep us free from terror, both at home and abroad.
May Almighty God keep us safe and secure in our hearts and in our homes.
photo credit: inktheworld.blogspot.com
© M.A. Pérez, 2015, All Rights Reserved
Reflections From the Heart 
Reblogged this on David Snape and Friends.
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I, too, remember exactly where I was when this tragedy occurred. To this day, I cannot watch the video footage of that second plane crashing into the tower. We should NEVER forget what happened on that fateful day.
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Oops, correction. Alan Jackson sang “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning.” Darryl Worley sang “Have You Forgotten?”
Some other songs I’ll be listing to from my playlist: “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” by Toby Keith “Rise from the Rubble” by John Batchelder “Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly” by Aaron Tippin “America Will Always Stand” by Randy Travis
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Needville Junior High was a little late getting the news. Chris Pulido raced into my 3rd period reading improvement class right after 2nd period and said, “The towers fell! The towers fell!” When I asked him to repeat and say what he meant, he said they watched it on tv in 2nd period science class. Evidently someone in the building had the news, and it spread. This was a little before 10:00. About that time Chris was explaining, I heard commotion in the front office, so I told him to go sit and I’d get more details. I’m not sure what I found out specifically, only that Chris wasn’t full of baloney.
When Darryl Worley soon came out with the song, “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning,” I think of part of the lyrics–“…teaching a class full of innocent children…” That’s exactly what I was doing.
Within a few days, I read an essay that was written by Leonard Pitts of THE MIAMI HERALD. If you can find it, read it.
A few months later, one of my students’ dads wrote and recorded a song called “Rise from the Rubble.” The singer is John Batchelder. He is backed by some musicians from the group Little Texas.
Tomorrow will be a somber day.
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That was a sad day and some many thing happened that changed the course of this country.
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Thank you for a beautiful account of a terrible thing.
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I was reading Tom Clancy’s book, Debt of Honour (which was about a commercial jet plane crashing into Capitol building in Washington) when the news of 9/11 broke. It felt so surreal. I never finished that book.
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