Seven years ago I was moving flat. A firiend of mine who had a car was helping me transport my things from the old flat to the new. After I think the first trip, on the way back to the old flat he turned on the radio to BBC Radio1. As luck would have it, the moment we turned on the radio was when they did the news flash announcing the attack on the Two Towers. I spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between finishing packing, and watching the television. If there was any euphoria left over from the end of the Cold War, it was swept away as the first tower fell. This was a new war, but it was also an old war. It was a renewal of the war between Islam and Christianity, a conflict that has dominated much of human history since the followers of Mohammed, after his death, emerged from the Arabian desert and embarked on a century-long orgy of conquest and destruction.
But while it is important to place the events of September 11th 2001 in the macro-historical context, it is also vitally important to remember them for themselves. To remember the those who lost their lives, and to hold in our hearts and prayers those who still suffer, physically or emotionally, through injury or loss of family or friends.
It is also important, while our attention inevitably focuses on the destruction of the two towers, it is also important not to forget the dead at the Pentagon, and in United Flight 93.
Against the misery of this day, and the memories it brings, I like to call attention to Flight 93. The passengers and aircrew of Flight 93 were not special people. They were ordinary folks. A smattering representation of the wide variety of people that make up the idea that is the United States of America. Due to a delay to their flight, and the spread of mobile phones, they were aware what had happened in the other three flights. They guessed their likely fate, and they choose to resist. They stood up. They were counted. On that day, our enemy lost the war, because they showed us the way. I am not here talking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - though I believe those wars to be just - I am talking about the indomitability of our spirit. Our enemies though us weaklings, cowards, craven, and the people of Flight 93 showed them that this was not the case. Their victory in the skies over Pennsylvania is, for me, an inspiration.
Make no mistake, the fact that plane crashed into a lonely field was a victory. A victory dearly bought, bought with blood, as the most important victories inevitably are. And I have no doubt, that were passengers in other planes granted the chance of time that those in Flight 93 were, they would have taken the same action.
All the dead of September 11th 2001 should be remembered. And I know of now better intention of remembrance than the famous verse:
"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them."
We will remember them.
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