Patriots Day, September 11th - What we honor and remember

It was a gorgeous Tuesday morning in Centreville, VA and I was still asleep. I had been working as a bartender and that meant late nights and sleeping in. I didn’t have any reason to get up early that morning. I didn’t have to work or be anywhere specific. But even with no alarm set, I woke up and looked at the clock. It was 8:46 am. What woke me up I’ll never really know.

My morning routine was to go into our office and turn on the computer, log-on to AOL and check my email. AOL instant messenger always would auto-load, just as it did this morning. Yes, AOL…and it was dial-up.

It was 8:56. Stef was working at her office in DC. She sent me an IM:

“Good morning babe. Did you see what’s happening in New York?”

I had no clue what she was talking about and replied as such. She told me to go turn on the TV.

It was 9:00.

The image on the screen was that of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on fire. The scrolling updates across the bottom were talking of an “accident” at WTC One. It was a newsworthy image, certainly. But it was just a suspected large building fire at this point in time. Matt Lauer and Katie Couric’s voices were trying to fill the oddly silent air.

It was 9:02. I know this because I turned to look at the clock and see how early it must’ve been since the fire had started. Maybe there weren’t a lot of people at work yet. I thought about that 1970’s film, “The Towering Inferno” and even remember a little chuckle thinking that OJ Simpson was in that. I watched the clock flip to 9:03.

I turned back to the TV and saw the image that would soon be seared into the collective consciousness of our world. I watched as flight 175 flew directly into the South Tower. I physically gasped. I fell silent. Tears welled in my eyes. The gravity of what was occurring was starting to set in.

The rest of that day is very specific in my mind. Driving in to DC with my friend Tim to pick up Stef and his then girlfriend, now wife, Meredith. The roads in both directions were as empty as if there were 2 feet of snow on them. We listened to news radio as we theorized what could possibly be going on. We rounded the turn past Arlington and Rosslyn to see the city unfurl before us.

We watched the Pentagon burn as we drove across the Roosevelt Bridge. We saw the entire population of workers and residents of DC as they staggered out of the grid-locked city in the general direction of their suburban homes and past our car. They’d not make it there on foot, but anywhere but the city seemed safer at this point in time.

I remember us sitting in a TGIFriday’s that evening and being glued to the events as they unfolded. The information, sketchy at times, of what had happened that day. I remember the silence over-head as nearby Dulles Airport, as well as all others, had grounded flights.

I remember so much of that day and those days that followed.

I remember the flags that appeared on every overpass. In front yards. Hanging from skyscrapers. I remember the unity that this country felt. We were ONE NATION. I remember the images from around the world where people were remembering, supporting and honoring those who perished. The world was ONE WORLD united against a brutal attack. In the sadness and the pain was a sense of hope and unity. A feeling that this world wasn’t as cold and lonely as it can often feel.



The events of September 11, 2001 are now well documented. A quick search can give you facts, timelines, and names of the victims. What it cannot give you is a reason why they happened. But the simplest explanation is obviously the most logical. Hatred.

There were millions who witnessed this hatred, and regrettably, 2,959 who never understood that it would be hatred that would cost them their lives this day. We have attempted to uncover the source of that hatred. We know the people behind it and have fought multiple wars in an effort to bring them to justice. Hundreds of thousands more have since died because of the hatred that manifested itself that morning. Our troops, their troops, their innocent citizens.

Where has it gotten us?

Our communities, our country and our world, stand divided once again. Divided over every thing that can separate us. The seed of hatred planted that day has been watered by political infighting, power lust, greed, and ignorance. IT is now the only thing that has grown from the site of where the Trade Towers stood. Hatred has taken root.

The men who executed and planned those attacks are extreme in their radical and fundamental beliefs in their faith. They are the ones to blame. Not the faith umbrella that they fall under. Not the one billion other people who kneel before the same God as them.

The Afghani child playing in the dirt field behind their mud hut home who is killed by a misguided drone, is as innocent as a person who died on 9/11. It makes no difference that she prays to a different God than you. It makes no difference that she was not born on this soil.


Today we honor the memory of those people who died that day. Whether they were innocent travelers, average office workers, or the brave heroes who charged into the burning buildings. We honor the spirit of America that showed it’s true colors that day and in the days immediately after the planes were flown into those three buildings and the ground in Pennsylvania. We remember that the rest of the world stood with us and cried with us. We remember how we stood together against hatred. That is what Patriots Day is all about. Remembering the core values we hold in this country and they are not much different than the core values of the almost 7 billion people on this planet. We remember the freedoms afforded to us being American citizens, freedoms upon which our Nation was founded in the first place. And we understand that with such wonderful freedoms, why people so wish to cross our borders to taste them. That we are one Nation, under God, indivisible. And it certainly doesn’t matter what you call that God.

Being different from each other in country of origin, faith or language does not mean being wrong or being better. It means only being different. Understanding and respect for difference is the only way to combat hate. Regardless of any differences, we are still Americans, and more so, we are citizens of one world…united against hate.