Twenty-four years ago, a hard-fought, controversial election put Republican George W. Bush in the White House and left Americans deeply divided. Less than a year later, on Sept. 11, 2001, those rancorous divisions abruptly ended when 19 terrorists divided into teams, commandeered four commercial aircraft, and crashed them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania after heroic passengers rose up and fought against them.
The men who had planned and financed these operations declared themselves victorious. They believed they had shot an arrow into the heart of “the Great Satan.” Perhaps they had even hoped to bring the United States to its knees.
A Nation Unites
While the federal government and its military put together a response to this terrorist declaration of war, Americans recovered from their shock and horror and rallied around each other. Rescue workers drove themselves past exhaustion as they picked through the smoldering remains of collapsed buildings. Others showed up to support them with coffee, water, food, and prayers. Churches became places of comfort and refuge, and religion made temporary gains as a force in the American polity. Schoolchildren mailed letters and cards to the families of the victims. Patriotism became commonplace, with flags decking out porches and stores.4 Stories
In one chapter of the book, Marsha Arons tells us how New York City cab drivers came to the rescue of many people on this fatal September day. Here is one anonymous cabbie’s account: “One lady said she had to stop to tell her son that she was okay. Her phone wouldn’t work so we stopped at his office around Fiftieth Street. He was outside, just staring south. When he saw his mother, he started crying.”A student singing group, The Sirens, visited Manhattan’s Ground Zero, where “hundreds of people stood watching and crying.” The schoolgirls sang one song, then another, and then another, for two hours. “In our last song, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’” wrote Elizabeth Danehy, “firemen began to fill the street. There were about forty of them, and they had just walked off Ground Zero from working there all day. They removed their hats and began to cry ... They were crying and tried to explain how horrible it is there, but told us how important it is that people support each other. I will never forget that day as long as I live.”
From a retirement home, Carol McAdoo Rehme gathered these thoughts and others from residents: “I keep wondering, ‘Where is God in all of this?’ And I keep thinking, ‘He’s waiting to hear from you,’” Edna, age 103; “If we feed hope, fear will starve to death,” Selma, age 74; and “Kites rise against the wind. So will we,” Herman, age 83.
From the other end of the age spectrum, David Skidmore recorded his feelings on the 9/11 birth of his daughter: “Although the world Anna Belle was welcomed into is a different world than the one that awaited her a day earlier, let’s reflect on the words of the doctor as she held my daughter for her first unaided breath while a nearby television relayed the unfolding tragedy. Turning to everyone in the room, the doctor said, “May this child be a reminder of who is really in control of our world.”
Love Is a Way to Remember
This mood of patriotism, unity, and renewed faith, like all moods, was temporary. The passage of time and the natural accumulation of daily events, both in the public forum and in the lives of individuals, eventually eased the trauma, pain, and sorrow of 9/11, except in those who even now still grieve their deceased loved ones. Our nation pays homage every year to those who lost their lives with ceremonies and speeches, but the raw wounds of 9/11 have healed. The Chicken Soup collection is no longer in print, and today we’re once again politically divided in the middle of another rancorous election season.Yet, there’s a takeaway that lies outside the realm of politics. This year, when we pause to remember that September day, we should consider how a barbaric act of hatred produced love on a grand scale. The firefighters who raced up the steps of the Twin Towers to rescue others, those who labored night and day to find survivors and to recover the remains of the dead, the moms and dads who held their children especially close at bedtime that evening, all those millions of men, women, and children who helped others, who wept and prayed—all of these people acted out of love.
In her contribution to the Chicken Soup book, writer Christina M. Abt tells of receiving an email from a friend on 9/11 before the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. That electronic note raised a question that multitudes of people, both those who were killed and millions who survived, would answer later that day: “If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call, what would you say, and why are you waiting?”
This Sept. 11, 2024, when you pause to remember that tragedy, perhaps it’s a good time to ask that same question: “If you were going to die soon, who would you call?”
Think about it.
Then pick up your phone.
