With a world filled with wonder, there is always something that is not

wonderful. As a society there are certain things that we will forever

remember, and there are certain things that we will forget. A certain time
within history that we will forever remember, and never forget is the tragedy
that is September 11, 2001. This is not only a day that we will never forget,
but also a day that None of us will ever forget(Seattle Post Intelligencer)i.
September 11, 2001 is a day we, as a society and as a population, do
not want to forget for numerous reasons. A primary reason for never wanting
to forget such a tragic day is due to the shear fact that this element of
terrorism within such a forthcoming and decently peaceful nation had
somewhat come out of no where. There were clashes with the Middle East,
however up until this event, nothing was as serious. This event, in itself, also
sparked such a huge war on terrorism. In this war on terrorism, primary
started on September 11, we have noticed a steady incline in airport security
(TSA), nationalism, as well as a large fear of the middle east in itself. We
especially witnessed the fear of the middle east during similar acts of terror.
The similar acts of terror were demonstrated during the shootings during
The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado in 2012, the Boston Marathon
bombing in 2013, as well as the bombings in Paris, this past year. The events
allowed for us as a nation to slowly realize that our most irrational fear

derives from something that caused our nation to lose quite a number of
people.
Statisticsbrain.com says in total nearest the area of attack, casualties
were at 2,996ii. Similarly the same Website defines each areas casualty
count, World Trade Center 2,606, Airlines 246, The Pentagon Building 125,
and the Hijackers 19. The number of hijackers left deceased, is the same
number as the number of hijackers that had seized the planes, as per
Cnn.comiii. Though the number of people lost is no where near the count of
bodies during war, the number of bodies counted on this day was
particularly high. A reason for not forgetting this day is in the extreme
amount of casualties. Given the numbers of loss within the country, there is
the instant assumption that those numbers, the statistics, were connected to
someone somewhere, thus it had impacted a vast majority of citizens.
Kobe Bryant once said, Everything negative - pressure, challenges
is all an opportunity for me to rise.iv In this quote what Kobe means is
simply, in a time where there is so much struggle, we must find within us a
reason to better ourselves from this struggle. This quote can directly be
applied to the way the U.S. reacted post 9/11 due to how quick and
positively the wound had been treated. At the three attack sites, days and
weeks - and months as was the case with New York City were spent

extinguishing fires, searching for survivors and, ultimately, searching for

remains of the victims. It took nine months to remove approximately 1.8
million tons from the WTC site.( http://www.911memorial.org/rescuerecovery)v. In the effort to mend what had fallen, the 911memorial.org
documented a synopsis of how the process had taken place.
September 12, 2001: At 12:30 p.m., rescuers searching the north tower
wreckage to locate Genelle Guzman. She will be the last of 18 people pulled
from the rubble alive.

September 13, 2001: Structural engineers begin examining

the structural integrity of buildings on the periphery of the
World Trade Center site.
September 17, 2001: Professional construction and
credentialed recovery workers take over the operations at
ground zero. Volunteers continue to assist in the effort.
September 28, 2001: More than 134 tons of material have
been removed; NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani estimates
that the cleanup will take anywhere from nine months to a
year.
October 6, 2001: The last federal rescue team leaves
ground zero. Although workers hope to find survivors, their
official mission shifts to recovery.

October 8, 2001: Construction workers discover a crack in

the subterranean slurry wall encircling the World Trade
Center site. Engineers fear the slurry wall will rupture,
causing catastrophic flooding that would compromise
recovery operations. In the following weeks, engineers and
workers fortify the slurry wall.
October 28, 2001: A memorial service is held at the World
Trade Center site for victims families.
October 30, 2001: Citing safety concerns, the New York
City officials announce plans to reduce the number of
uniformed personnel on the site. Out of the approximately
160 firefighters on duty on the site, 25 would remain, and
25 of the approximately 90 police officers (the NYPD and
the PAPD) would stay on.
October 31, 2001: At least $200 million worth of gold and
silver is removed from a Bank of Nova Scotia vault under 4
WTC.
November 2, 2001: Firefighters protest plans to scale back
their presence on site. Eventually the city allows 75 to
remain on site.
December 19, 2001: New York Governor George Pataki
states that the FDNY has extinguished the fire at the World

Trade Center site. FDNY remains on standby in case small

pockets of fire or hot spots are discovered.
February 20, 2002: Trapped Port Authority Trans-Hudson
(PATH) train cars removed from the World Trade Center
site.
March 11, 2002: The six-month anniversary of the attacks
is marked with Tribute in Light, an art installation
projecting two shafts of light upward from lower
Manhattan.
May 10, 2002: Along with 1.4 million tons of debris
removed from the site, 19,435 body parts have been
recovered from ground zero.
May 28, 2002: Construction workers cut down the Last
Column, the final standing column of the World Trade
Center. Two days later, on May 30, 2002, the column is
removed from the site in a public event attended by
thousands, ceremonially marking the end of the recovery
and cleanup operations.
June 25, 2002: The last truckload of debris is carried out of
the World Trade Center site. More than 110,000 truckloads
of debris have been removed from ground zero.

Though the efforts to clean the area had seemingly ended there, the idea of
expansion within the memory of this unfortunate event would continue.

In the spirit of regeneration, the revolution to manicure such a chip in

the nail that was the World Trade Center had begun. This allowing the
memory to live on, allowing us never to forget. Where the World Trade
Center and the Twin Towers had once sat, now thrives a blooming growth of
trees, a monument, specifically that of two waterfalls that sit in the footprints
of the Twin Towers. As well in memoriam, there is now a museum depicting
the events that had occurred in that tragic day, as well as the events that
followed and allowed for us to continue to thrive as the land of the free and
the home of the brave(The star-spangled Banner)vi.
Through life and history we learn quite a lot, though ironically, We
learn from history that we do not learn from history as per Georg Wilhelm
Friedrich Hegelvii. The events that occurred September 11, 2001, however we
may never learn from history, we will most certainly never forget. Through
trying times, and through sorrow, the country will band together and allow
not a soul to forget, and not a soul to go without the knowledge that is the
occurrence and terror of September 11, 2001.

"'None of Us Will Ever Forget'" Seattlepi.com. Seattle Post News Services, 11 Sept. 2001. Web. 16 Mar. 2016
"Statistic Brain." Statistic Brain. N.p., 16 Nov. 2015. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
iii
"September 11th Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 7 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
iv
Bryant, Kobe. "Kobe Bryant Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
v
"Rescue & Recovery." National September 11 Memorial & Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
vi
Key, Francis Scott. The Star-Spangled Banner. The Yale Book of American Verse. Ed. by Thomas Raynesford
Lounsberry. Bartleby.com, Jan. 1999.
vii
Friedrich Hegel, Georg Wilhelm. "Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Quotes." Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Quotes
(Author of Phenomenology of Spirit). Goodreads.com, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
ii

Works Cited
"The 9/11 Encyclopedia." New York Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
Bryant, Kobe. "Kobe Bryant Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
Craven, Jackie. "The Rebuilding of the World Trade Center: A Photo Timeline."
About.com Home. N.p., 8 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
Friedrich Hegel, Georg Wilhelm. "Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Quotes." Georg
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Quotes (Author of Phenomenology of Spirit).
Goodreads.com, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
"Gallery of Sept 12, 2001 Newspaper Front Pages." ABC News. N.p., 11 Sept. 2001.
Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
"'None of Us Will Ever Forget'" Seattlepi.com. Seattle Post News Services, 11 Sept.
2001. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
"Rescue & Recovery." National September 11 Memorial & Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 18
Mar. 2016.
"September 11 by Numbers." September 11 by Numbers. N.p., Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Mar.
2016.
"September 11th Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 7 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Mar.
2016.
"Statistic Brain." Statistic Brain. N.p., 16 Nov. 2015. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.