Published: September 12, 2009 04:52 pm      

We remember

THE ISSUE:The anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

OUR VIEW:We were reminded that life is precious, that we should treasure every moment.

Last week marked the eighth anniversary of the terror attacks that changed forever the way the United States views the rest of the world.

Suddenly, this nation had been attacked on its own soil.

Americans watched in horror the news that first one and then two airliners had crashed into the World Trade Center. They felt a sense of panic at news that a third plane had crashed into the Pentagon and then a fourth had gone down in Pennsylvania.

For many of us, maybe most of us, the wounds from that day remain fresh. It’s not hard to remember where we were that day, what we felt as we absorbed the news of what had happened and as our leaders pondered what would happen next.

Americans marked the anniversary in many ways.

Some gathered in public, at a high school football game or a public ceremony, to honor the nation’s military personnel and emergency responders and to send up a prayer for the welfare of the nation. Others stood silently at home or at work.

At Zuccotti Park in New York City, thousands gathered to hear relatives of the victims read the 2,752 names of the people who died that day. There were moments of silence at the times the planes struck the two towers and at the moment the north tower fell. Afterward, relatives and survivors descended into the pit at Ground Zero to leave flowers for the victims.

And then at 6 o’clock Friday, two towers of light cut through the darkness at the site where the twin towers once stood.

Folks in Arlington, Va., gathered at 9:37 a.m. Friday for a moment of silence in honor of the 184 people who died in the attack on the Pentagon, and thousands of people gathered Friday in a field in Shanksville, Pa., to remember the 40 heroes of United Flight 93.

Many lives changed forever that day. We were reminded that life is precious, that we should treasure every moment.

We remember that day, and we look forward with hope for the future.

– Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, and Kokomo Tribune