Today's News & Views
September 11, 2006

9/11 Five Years Later

For Baby Boomers, the defining "where were you when" experience was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I had been studying in a stall at the main library of the University of Minnesota, and as I left the building there was something in the air, a buzz that told me unmistakable that something had happened that chilly November day. I'll never forget the sense of premonition.

When I got to class my professor was in tears. He told us the devastating news: the president had been shot.

Compared to September 11, it had taken forever to find out that, first, that the President had been shot and then that he had died. By contrast, in the era of instant communication across a welter of outlets, much of the world knew within minutes that a plane had crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

As it happened I would be doing the final layout of National Right to Life News that September day. Before I left for the graphic designer's office I had stopped to have a bothersome tooth repaired.

When I got into the car, I turned on the radio. I learned the news that the World Trade Center's North Tower had been hit, there was a gaping hole near the top, and the building was on fire. At the time we didn't know it was a terrorist attack.

By the time I made it to the freeway, the South Tower had been struck and was aflame. No more talk about small airplanes accidentally crashing into the building.

At 10:05, almost exactly one hour after the South Tower was struck at 9:03, the building collapsed. At 10:28, less than two hours after impact, the North Tower collapsed as well. The number of deaths will never be known exactly. At a minimum nearly 3,000 people lost their lives, including rescuers.

And, as we know all too well, at 9:43 a third plane struck the Pentagon, taking the lives of 189 people.

Meanwhile, the courageous passengers and crew of United Flight 93 were attempting to wrest control of the plane back from the hijackers. In the process, at 10:10, the plane crashed near the town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Forty passengers and crew were killed.

As I wrote in TN&V at the time, communications were snarled in many areas of the country. It was extremely difficult to contact people--and not just in New York City.

In producing a newspaper these days, most everything is done electronically. As the day progressed, it seemed like there was no chance we could finish the paper and send it over the net to the plant where NRL News is printed.

I remember like it was yesterday the thought that ran through my mind. In the larger scale of things, I suppose it was no big deal, but it was to me: no way that paper was not going to get printed that evening.

Our prayers go out to the families of the victims, who lost so much. Our prayers go out as well to the leadership of our great nation, prayers that they have courage and vision in a time of great peril.

God bless America.