| If you pay close attention to your wall or desk calendar this morning, it may note that today is Patriot Day.
It is a national holiday signed into the public record by former President George W. Bush on Dec. 18, 2001, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington.
The terrorists hijacked commercial jetliners to carry out the attacks. A planned fourth attack that day was averted when passengers tried to take control of the aircraft to prevent the hijackers from crashing the jet into another American landmark. That airliner crashed in a rural field in Pennsylvania.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, including everyone aboard the airliners.
Patriot Day is not a "day-off holiday." Its purpose is to remember those who lost their lives in the attacks and designates that Americans should fly their flags at half-staff today. We're also asked to observe a moment of silence.
On the eighth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on American soil most of the focus tends to be on the firefighters, police officers and paramedics who daily put their lives on the line to keep us safe.
Eight years, ago more than 400 of these public servants lost their lives trying to rescue people from the towers. Today, hundreds more suffer severe respiratory ailments from dust and fumes they inhaled while at the site. That focus is well deserved.
But let's not forget the civilians who also died as heroes that day -- the passengers who thwarted the hijackers' plans on Flight 93; the civilians who died in the towers because they stayed behind to help others -- as well as the families and friends of those killed that day, who have had to carry on after losing fathers, mothers, children and friends.
As we remember the 9/11 terrorist attacks, let's not forget that on this Sept. 11, American military personnel are fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq in the war on terror.
So far more than 820 Americans have died in Afghanistan and more than 4,300 have been killed in Iraq. Tens of thousands more have been severely injured. All of these men and women also are heroes. So are the families of these fallen fighting men and women.
And so are the families of those fighting overseas; the wives, husbands and children who have had to endure the hardships that come with the long separations while their soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen and women are fighting. |
