Opinion: It is time to remember the loss of Sept. 11

Fourteen years ago, Americans awoke to a new kind of terrorism where commercial jetliners full of fuel and passengers were flown “kamikaze” style into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. A fourth airliner crashed in a Pennsylvania field as a Minnesotan led a passenger revolt to keep this flight from hitting another building.
Take a few minutes today to reflect and remember the gravity of Sept. 11.
A total of 2,977 people - passengers and first responders - lost their lives in the airliners and targeted sites that morning.
Many first responders that responded that day and in days that followed are suffering health issues today and some are dying from exposure-related diseases.
America awoke to a new decade where terror raised its ugly head right here in our homeland, not just across the ocean deep in some far-off land.
Numerous Sept. 11 remembrances will be held across the country today, especially in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Sept. 11 has been etched in our collective memory, much the way the sinking of the Maine or the Lusitania, the Pearl Harbor attack, the Kennedy assassination or Martin Luther King’s assassination had on earlier generations.
Virtually every American over 20 has Sept. 11 seared in his or her memory.
On that day, we didn’t even know who viciously attacked and killed Americans right here on our home soil.
The attacks of Sept. 11 were not just against our country, but were an attempt to attack and destroy the American way of life and the light of freedom around the world.
America was angry. Americans demanded action and they wanted it now. The country soon went to war against a movement - the Taliban - and remained at war for more than a decade in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Progress has been made. U.S. military captured Saddam Hussein and removed him from office in Iraq. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of Sept. 11, was located, identified and killed in Pakistan.
A memorial and buildings have been rebuilt upon the site of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon has been repaired.
The fight against terrorism is far from over - a new threat of ISIL has risen in Syria and Iraq. Various terror attacks continue across the world.
Our country remains divided on the correct path in the MIddle East. Critics blamed the Bush administration for being too hawkish and other critics blame the Obama administration for being too meek.
Sept. 11 is a time to remember the victims of that day and heroic actions of individuals on the planes and among the first responders.
America can be beaten and bruised on a given day, but Americans rebound, heal their wounds and continue their defense of freedom and liberty here and around the world.
Remember all the victims of Sept. 11, then and now. And God bless the United States.