Posts tagged democracy

All that remains, except for the freedom.

This is the third arti­cle in a series this week on the Sep­tem­ber 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

It is almost 10 AM East­ern time on Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 11, 2001.

Two planes have been delib­er­ately crashed into the World Trade Cen­ter. Amer­i­can flight 11 out of Boston strikes the North Tower at 8:45 AM. With the whole world trans­fixed by the drama in New York, won­der­ing if this is a hor­ri­ble acci­dent or a delib­er­ate act, the defin­i­tive answer is not long in arriv­ing. United flight 175, also out of Boston, strikes the South Tower at 9:03 AM. Amer­i­can flight 77 strikes the Pen­ta­gon at 9:43 AM.

Jeremy Glick, a pas­sen­ger aboard doomed United 93, has called his wife, Lyz. She is stay­ing with her par­ents in upstate New York. State Police are on another line with Jeremy’s mother-​​in-​​law: Does he know where the plane is headed? He’s not sure, but he thinks they’ve changed direc­tion. In fact, the plane is headed to the Dis­trict of Colum­bia. To this day, no one knows which build­ing was the ter­ror­ists’ intended target.

Lyz relates to Jeremy the scene on her par­ents’ TV, the twin tow­ers on fire, soon to collapse.

As so many did, fac­ing down death that day, his mes­sage to his wife is one of agape love, of affir­ma­tion and strength.

Lyz: You need to be strong.
Jeremy: I need you to be happy, and I will respect any deci­sions that you make.

Then he tells her some­thing that is not often reported, that didn’t make it into the movie, that we as Amer­i­cans don’t talk about, but we should. (more…)