Seniors may be last graduating class to remember 9/11; underclassmen too young, not born
Seniors graduating high school this year may be the last class ever able to remember the historic and tragic day that 9/11 occurred. Even within those seniors it's hard to find someone who can actually recall the day as most were only two to three years of age at the time the event occurred. It seems the memories of those that do remember, tend to be short and hardly able to grasp at all.
September 11, 2001 nineteen people associated with the terrorist group called al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against multiple U.S. Targets. Those targets being the North Tower of the World Trade Center, the South Tower of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and during a struggle between terrorists and passengers, a fourth plane crash in a field near a reclaimed strip mine in Somerset County Pennsylvania.
According to various news statistics websites, September 11 was the deadliest day in New York’s history as it killed 343 firefighters trying to save other people. On 9/11 a total of 2,996 people, including 265 people on all four planes, 2,606 people from the World Trade Center, and 125 people from the pentagon lost their lives. Another 6,000 people were seriously or minorly injured.
The seniors that do remember 9/11 can only recall short memories of watching the news and seeing clips of it ,or hearing the news reporters speak of it. Most memories come from students recalling their family speaking about it and being shocked over something so terrible occurring in our country.
When asked what he remembered about that day, Shawn Cooper, a senior at Airport High School, said, “I was sitting on the couch when the news came on tv. Footage from a helicopter showed the two smoking towers. My whole family rushed into the room to watch the news.”
“It was a horrible time in our country's history, and it devastated us,” said Shawn, when asked his opinion on that fateful day. “ I hope that in the future we can protect better and have less attacks on our nation. We don't need a devastation like this to ever occur again.”
When asked why it is important to him that we remind people of 9/11, Shawn said, “We need to honor the lives that our country lost that day, and we need to always make sure something as tragic as 9/11 never repeats itself.”
As it marks 15 years since the day we lost so many innocent people, most children may not be able to recall the day it occurred, but that day will forever be in our hearts and everyone else's hearts in America, as will the individuals that lost their lives. 9/11 will never go unthought of or forgotten.
To find out more information about the events that occured on 9/11 research www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks.
To learn more information about the lives that were lost on that day, go to www.911memorial.org.