September 11, 2001 || May We Never Forget

This day, 22 years ago, thousands of unsuspecting Americans were living out what seemed to be a normal Tuesday morning.

This “normal” Tuesday morning would change the world, as we knew it, forever.

Close to 3,000 Americans would never return home leaving widespread heartache and devastation.

The first responder world was deeply wounded by the loss of close to 400 of their own including firefighters, police officers, port authority officers, EMS providers and so many more.

I was lecturing the terrorism chapter to an AEMT class recently and was shocked to learn most of the students were toddlers or not even born before the date of September 11, 2001.

While I hope America never faces such atrocities again, I wish each of those students could have seen what we did in a time when they were old enough to grasp the situation. Seems like an odd thing to say, I know, because what Americans witnessed was awful and much of the footage is still available to watch.

But it’s not the same.

To have not witnessed the devastation and tragedy in real-time means that the unity and the love that immediately followed were not experienced in real-time either. I just don’t if it can be replicated. It was a sight to see.

Countless hours of rescues, strangers helping strangers, volunteers putting themselves in harm’s way, young men and women enlisting in the military to do their part to protect the USA, churches opening their doors to those suffering……and so much more.

The unity and love seen throughout the country were truly beautiful.

This is what I wish the students could have witnessed in real time. When it really counted, Americans came together.

We were a nation wounded, but not broken.

May we never forget.

🇺🇸 God bless America 🇺🇸

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