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This reflection may prove difficult to read as we remember Sept. 11, 2001. The anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack on the United States of America is this Sunday. It has been 21 years since that tragic day. Everyone in our great nation remembers where they were when the 9/11 attacks happened.
I remember it as the clearest blue sky and a slight chill in the air, because it was Maine. I was on my way to work when the first plane struck the North Tower. I was at work when the second plane struck the South Tower. Later, America discovered the deadly fate of two additional hijacked planes that crashed into the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.
The most televised crime in history was followed by the brave attempts of the police and firefighters of New York City to save lives in the stricken towers. However, the entire world watched in shock and horror as the towers fell, cascading New York in tons of ash and soot for months. Ghostly figures walked the bridges out of Manhattan as all the mass transit services were shut down. Then a radio call from the Coast Guard pilot boat summoned a large flotilla of civilian and public boats. They arrived at the docks and walls of Manhattan and ferried nearly half a million people to safety.
The worst day in modern times beckoned the best in Americans. No one was willing to forget anyone left behind in Manhattan.
James Weathersby
Augusta