22 Years Since 9/11 ~ Gone But Never Forgotten By: Jennifer Kate

Welcome to a somber blog. It has been 22 years since 9/11, but this country has never been forgotten. If you guys don’t know who I am, I'm Jennifer Kate, a producer for Fruity Serial here on the Empty The Bench Podcast Network.

This day never gets any easier even though I didn’t personally lose or know anyone who perished on that horrible day but as a country, it’s a day that we mourn the loss of hundreds of people who lost their lives on that day. It has been 22 years since 9/11 took place. Here’s a quick overview of what 9/11 was for those of you who maybe don’t know or weren’t alive at the time. Two hijacked (commercial) planes crashed into the Twin Towers, Another plane was hijacked but the passengers of that commercial flight fought back and it ended up crashing in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the final hijacked commercial plane crashed into the Pentagon, Washington DC. These planes were hijacked by members of Al-Qaeda, an extremist terrorist group led by Osama Bin Laden (who I will talk about in a different blog). We lost over 2,700+ people on that horrid day. As we approach the 22nd anniversary of this horrible day in history we remember those brave men and women we lost and those brave service men and women we lost who risked their lives running into those burning buildings to save others while making the ultimate sacrifice.

I don’t fully remember 9/11 as I wasn't even two years old when this awful event took place and changed people's lives. But here's a little fun fact: My dad worked as a plumber at the World Trade Center, rebuilding Tower 1, The 9/11 Memorial Museum, and the 9/11 fountains which represent where the Twin Towers once stood. I remember back to middle school history class, where we learned about 9/11, and our teacher blocked the small TV as the towers fell. I can also remember in high school journalism class learning about the people jumping out of the windows of the Twin Towers as they had two choices: either jump from the windows or die by smoke inhalation and being burnt alive or the towers collapsing. I remember my high school journalism teacher showing up a famous photo formally known as “The Jumper,” which shows a person who had jumped out of a window of the Twin Towers. That photo was on the front page of all the newspapers. It’s hard to believe that it has already been 22 years since 9/11, and for the simple statement that we have used since that day forward, “Gone But Never Forgotten”, and on a day like that, that statement couldn’t ring more true.

That wraps it up for me here with this very somber blog. I want to quickly thank all of those who risked their lives to save others on that horrible day. Gone But Never Forgotten 22 years but still in our hearts forever. Thank you for reading this blog, and I will catch you guys in the next one.