9/11 in My Own Words

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My Necessary Admission

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Let me begin with the necessary admission: I was not at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001. I do not pretend to fully comprehend the depth of suffering endured by the millions who were there, the families who lost loved ones, or the heroes who gave their lives trying to save others. Nor can I claim to understand the experiences of the millions of young Americans who stepped forward to fight the wars that followed. Every catastrophe is unique, and every human reaction to it is deeply personal.

My own background is a little different. I was in Oklahoma City on business the day the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed. Our hotel overlooked the carnage, When I was a child, my father was firefighter, He was poisoned and died in a fire when I was young, so I had witnessed devastation firsthand. I have lived through many brutal events personally. But on September 11, my connection to the tragedy was like that of most Americans: I was watching the morning financial news on CNBC when the first plane hit. Like millions of others, I quickly switched channels to find better coverage, only to watch the second strike happen live.

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The Day America Changed

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As the day unfolded, I watched in absolute amazement as plane after plane struck our country—first New York, then the Pentagon, and finally United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Having seen firsthand what a bomb could do in Oklahoma City, I knew that nothing approached the absolute devastation unfolding in New York.

The panic and fear on the faces of people choked by toxic dust was overwhelming. When the city came to a standstill and gridlock left people with no way to cross the rivers, the historic 9/11 boatlift emerged—a stunning testament to American resilience. Yet, the fact that emergency planners at the time had no actionable escape plan speaks to the sheer scale of the tragedy. It was entirely outside the realm of human imagination at the time.

That day goes down in the annals of history as one of the worst strikes against America. It belongs alongside Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. In some ways, New York City was even worse than Pearl Harbor; this was not an attack on professional soldiers equipped to shoot back, but a targeted strike on citizens inside their own borders. While a few non-citizens tragically lost their lives at the Twin Towers, they were collateral damage to Islamic terrorists whose explicit target was the United States of America and its citizens.

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The Images We Will Never Forget

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I know, I am repeating things you have heard a million times, but for me, just going back in thought allows me mind eye images I will never forget. But remembering images is not enough. Just like the old saying goes, you will never forget where you were. Like everyone who could, I was riveted to my TV watching as the events unfolded.

First watching the second strike, watching the towers burn, then jumpers escaping the slow death in exchange for a quick death and then, of course, when the towers fell. Those are images that are hard to forget. But images are only that, pictures. It is the victims, the motives, the murderers and what they stood for that must never be forgotten. Images affect the onlooker. But the reasons, their agenda, who they represented, and Ideology they served can damage the future if you forget and fail to heed the warning of history.

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A snapshot of unity

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I also remember how the nation, DC and everyone pulled together…. Well, for a short time. I knew that day that this new attitude would never last, because I knew the problem with the political environment and the truth about the coming agendas. But for a few days America felt good again. There was no race, No rich, no poor, no good media, no bad media, no Democrats or Republicans, just Americans with a purpose. With a few exceptions of groups celebrating the carnage.

Something people in my generation had only heard of from WWII-aged people but never experienced in our lives. The intense national unity after September 11, 2001, often called the “rally-round-the-flag” effect, was historically massive but relatively brief. While the deep emotional solidarity and spikes in public trust lasted through late 2001 and part of 2002, the political partisans realized if this attitude held out, they would be out of power and out of a job, so they once again split and the media followed and unity was over. Proving once again there is no money in unity.

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Twenty-Five Years Later

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The purpose of my Op-Ed today is to talk about just 25 years later, after all the coverage through the years, all the 9/11 Remembrance Ceremonies, all the images captured in this modern photographic age, out of all the good intentions with year after year New Yorkers and Americans pledged time after time to “NEVER FORGET,” it seems like they have. Now not everyone, don’t get me wrong. But enough to elect a Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who hates America, hates NYC or at least the normal side of it, hates the Constitution, hates capitalism, and hates the people who support it all. How is that even possible? And to boot, the non-Muslim Democrats support this traitor 100%.

I hear people asking him not to come to the Annual 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony, but he says he is. Just the fact that these people who lost loved ones are asking instead of standing up to the city and stopping them tells you there is a huge problem among the people in NYC. That and the fact he has been Mayor this long and the rest of the city didn’t go ballistic tells it all. Even after a low turnout election, the rest of the city should have come unglued, but instead they just went along to get along. They have clearly been programed through the years of Democrat leadership in New York City. They do what they are told and mutter under their breath.

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What Does “Never Forget” Actually Mean?

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I am sure in general that people don’t forget the day, the images, the disaster, the media won’t let us. But they miss the mark when they don’t use that day to tell the truth and re-expose who and why this was done to America. Every year I watch in amazement as it seems like when, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) used the phrase “some people did something to someone,” That somehow it seems to have come true. It is almost like they don’t know who was responsible for this horrific action.

The media doesn’t take this time to go forward with how wrong this was, or who did this, they use it for a media day; they use it to try to increase their market share for ratings, for money, for profit. In NYC kids go to school that day where the educational system does basically the same thing the media does on this day, they use it as an excuse for propaganda. I don’t know, maybe a drag queen comes in to explain to the class how horrified “it” was when their favorite makeup and costume was ruined.

Like December 7th, our politicians have never declared this a national holiday, both days that were caused by an evil force that cost our nation dearly, then cost thousands of lives trying to stamp it out and billions of dollars fixing the disaster areas and the havoc it would cause. When something is declared a national holiday, it is not just a day off, it should become a day of explanation and focus on history and real facts of the event. So why don’t they do it. Why are the images and tributes of December 7th 1942 images without explanation of cause. Why has 9/11 became the same?

Both days should be remembered not for just the event, not for the media opportunity, not even for the lost souls. These were two days that Changed the history of the United States and the World. It should be remembered for the evil that inflected devastation and heartbreak. So, generations that follow can remember why we can’t elect them to office, why we can’t allow things like this to grow in a free nation and why we can’t allow anyone to cancel it, change it, or paint it as something it is not. Everyone who tries must be identified and designated as a member of the same evil that on that day perpetrated this deed against America. There must be consequences.

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Call Me What You Please, I Will Not Forget.

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People who want to call me an “Islamophob,” go ahead. It falls on deaf ears, maybe I am, when an ideology kills Americans, but to be honest most of it is because I just don’t care what the people calling me that think, because I understand their agenda, their connection to the people who executed 9/11 and because I have not and will not forget! I have not forgotten the people we lost, not the price of rebuilding, not the damage it did to the citizens of this nation and certainly not who or why this heinous act was committed. And rest assured, neither shall I forget the people who have forgotten or try to rewrite history because it doesn’t fit their narrative.

That was a day some will never forget, the people who lost loved ones either at ground zero, at the other locations, in the toxic debris that are still killing volunteers today or in the war that followed, they will never forget, not the day that changed their lives, not the person they lost and not the reasons it happened and certainly not who committed the act.

As for the rest of the city who voted for your Muslim mayor, a member of the same ideology who took the towers down…… You forgot and you are the ones people should be asking not to come to the 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony. This is not a celebration; This is not a media event. This is 25-year remembrance, of all of it.