Terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 brought the nation together. Statistics involving the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in America 23 years ago still numb the senses.
While 2,974 people lost their lives on 9/11/2001, over 4,343 survivors and first responders have died in the years since, according to the World Trade Center Health Program. The toxic cloud of dangerous particles inhaled by so many first responders made their bodies more susceptible to respiratory diseases and cancer.
Other numbers are just as staggering:
· 3,051 children lost a parent on 9/11
· 56 million, or 20 percent of the U.S. population in 2001 (estimate), knew someone hurt or killed in the attacks
· 1,717 families received no remains
· An estimated $40.2 billion of insurance was paid worldwide
· Citizens from 115 nations were killed in the attacks
· An estimated 422,000 New Yorkers suffering from post-traumatic disorder
One can’t imagine what it was like for the 403 first responders who answered the call and lost their lives that fateful day in New York City and Washington, D.C., or for the 40 passengers of United Flight 93, who fought the terrorists for control of the plane before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
The Sept. 11 attacks are the subject of a new exhibit in the Faith, Family and Country Heritage Museum in Branson West. Artifacts include a uniform worn by a New Jersey volunteer firefighter who drove a truckload of supplies into New York City that day and then spent three months working on the piles at Ground Zero. The jacket sleeve cuffs show the rust stains from combing through the tons of debris. It’s estimated that 1.8 million tons of debris were removed from the plane crash sites in New York and Washington, D.C.
Four years ago, a Pew Research Poll showed that virtually all American adults (97%) could recall precisely where they were or what they were doing the moment they heard about the 9/11 attacks. By comparison, another Pew poll in 1999 found that, among those old enough to remember, 90% could recall where they were or what they were doing when they first heard about the assassination of JFK, and 85% remembered first hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The day after the attacks, two-thirds of Americans said that 9/11 was more serious than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Such comparisons or judgments, however, must be kept in historical perspective. Today’s high school students were not yet born on Sept. 11, 2001, so to them, events of 9/11 are as remote as Pearl Harbor’s history was to today’s baby boomers.
After the attacks that changed the world, Rudolph Giuliani, then mayor of New York, stated that 9/11 was a new rally cry of freedom in America.
"The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit,” Guiliani said. “Instead, we have emerged stronger and more unified. We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic and religious freedom, the rule of law and respect for human life. We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom."
Instead of traumatizing Americans as the terrorists had hoped, the attacks actually brought citizens together in a spirit of patriotism - much as Pearl Harbor did 60 years earlier.
Sadly, we have not experienced that kind of national unity since.
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