Sunday, September 11, 2016

On September 11, 2001

By Douglas V. Gibbs
AuthorSpeakerInstructorRadio Host

They say that those of us who were old enough to understand what was happening knows exactly where we were at, and exactly what we were doing, when planes flew into the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.  For me, that day is crystal clear, and deeply etched into my memory.

I am a United States Navy veteran, the son of a United States Marine, and I am an author, radio host, public speaker, and instructor regarding the United States Constitution.  My past jobs have been truck driver, construction laborer, banker, city employee, and pizza restaurant employee (aside from my Navy days).  On 9/11/2001 I was about five years into my 13-plus years in the construction industry.  I did one of those jobs that Americans are supposed to not be willing to do.  I dug ditches.

I was running crews, by this point after only five years in the company, partly because I was a hard worker and did my job well, and partly because the turnover in construction is pretty big. It's hard work, and when the fingers are bleeding, and the blisters are forming, and the cracks dig deep into your hands and burn at night so badly that it makes it hard to sleep, most people throw their hands up and say, "screw this."  The only work I have done that is more difficult is lumber-jacking. . . and that was something I did voluntarily so I wouldn't have to hire more loggers on my property.  So, it's safe to say that when the going gets tough, I am the type that works harder.

A few days prior to September 11th, 2001 my work truck was involved in an auto accident. I wasn't in the truck, I was driving a big rig, and one of my co-workers was following in my work truck. As a result, on the morning of 9/11, I was driving a rental truck, rather than my work truck, which at that moment was in pieces somewhere in some auto-body shop. The rental truck had a CD player in it, so rather than listen to my usual mix of either talk-radio, or Christian Music Radio, I chose to bring some CDs. So, when the tragedy of 9/11 occurred, I was not aware of it.

Here on the West Coast we are disconnected from the east. It's a different world out here, and anything that happens back in New York and its vicinity is normally just something that sometimes pops up on the nightly news broadcast. So, even after we arrived on the job site that morning, word of the attack had not reached us, yet.

A couple hours into the morning my trenching machine encountered a particularly nasty vein of rock, and I snapped an axle. I called into the office and the mechanic from "the yard" was dispatched with the appropriate parts for repair. A little while later, the yard dog arrived, and as he brought me the new axle, he says, "Hey, did you hear about what happened in New York City?  A plane accidentally flew into a sky scraper."

He said something about the World Trade Center towers, but I was only vaguely familiar with the World Trade Center.  I didn't know that they defined the New York skyline, but I did know the buildings had been attacked by terrorists in 1993 under President Clinton's watch.

During lunchtime we clicked on the news, and listened as the radio gave us confusing reports.  Nobody was sure what was happening.  When we heard there was a second plane that flew into the World Trade Center, though, the idea that this was happening on accident seemed unlikely.

After the end of the day, after dropping off the guys at the rendezvous point, I got home and rushed to the front door. It was a hot day, so my wife had the front door open. I stood in the doorway and caught an image on the television on the opposite side of my living room. My first visual of what happened on September 11, 2001 was the second plane striking the other tower.  I watched the impact, and the flames shooting through the other side of the building.

Immediately tears formed in my eyes.  I dropped my lunchbox.  "This was no accident," I said.

"They think it was terrorists," my wife said to me from her chair.

As news unfolded, and I learned about the attack on the Pentagon and United 93, my anger became fear. What was next? Was Los Angeles next on the list?

I was angry, hurt, and still a bit confused.  Why would anyone do such a thing?  Little did I know, my pain was miniscule compared to the New Yorkers who experienced first hand the act of war against the United States.

A year later my wife and I visited the northeast United States. Thirteen months after the attack I stood on the edge of ground-zero gazing through a hole in the green tarp covering a chain linked fence over the big hole that was once the base of the World Trade Center. I never got to see the towers. I didn't understand how important they were to the New York City skyline.

As I stood there a man came to stand beside me, glancing through the hole as I was.  Down below the subway tracks were still twisted. Crews were working trying to eliminate the debris. The man said, more to himself than to anyone else I think, "I used to work there."

"In the towers?" I asked.
"Yes."

"You weren't there when the attacks happened?"

"I should have been," he said. "I was late to work. Watched the attack from the roadway through the windshield of my car. I haven't been back since that day. This is my first time to return to this place since the attack. I lost a lot of friends that day. Friends and co-workers."

"I never saw the towers before the attack," I said.

"They were so tall. The skyline isn't right without them. The towers dominated the skyline. They were the tallest by quite a bit. Without them New York isn't the same. I'm not the same. New York will never forget what those bastards did."

I said, "America will never forget."

I hoped I was correct in my prediction, but I fear that the new generation may not be fully informed about what happened that day.  We have been bending over backwards for Islam, ever since.  We are importing them in the name of "refugees."  Islam is a culture of hate that has declared war against the West, and the world, yet we appease them as if they are being honest when they say, "Never mind the terrorist attacks and carnage in the name of Islam, we are the religion of peace.  Those jihadists are just a small number of radicals." In Europe the terrorist attacks have escalated because of the idiotic "refugee" policies of their leaders, actions that have led to the public voting in a manner that Germany's Prime Minister Merkel's political party is losing badly in the latest election.   The media is practicing Sharia Law by shutting down anything that criticizes Islam.  ISIS, which has emerged since the reduction in power of al-Qaeda, is more sophisticated and more brazen than its predecessor who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks.  The slaughter of Christians by Muslims has become worse and more brutal around the world, and the liberal left Democrats have been committing their own attacks against Christianity. . . enough so that GOP candidate for President Donald Trump has pointed it out.  The failure of the United States, with Obama and the Democrats in control of the White House, to support and defend Israel has led to even Benjamin Netanyahu criticizing the United States Government for its role in supporting Israel's enemies.

I interviewed a woman a year ago in Los Angeles, and she said after the World Trade Center towers collapsed on 9/11, the debris was raining down from the sky for a week.

Have Americans forgotten?

Do they forget that Islam is not simply a religion, but a political ideology that makes the Nazis seem tame? It is hardly the religion of peace.  Bush was wrong when he called Islam that.  Islam is an ideology designed for world domination.  But, violence alone is not what jihad is.  Jihad is infiltration, jihad is deception, jihad is immigration and using numbers to overpower.  Islam uses our freedoms against us.  Our laws against us.  Our leaders and media against us.

Liberal left judges have seized control of our court system, and Islam has joined the communists in their seizure of control over the Democrat Party.  The Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the White House, the FBI, the Pentagon, the CIA, and so forth.
Now, as the election looms, Islamic terror knocks on the door as our government looks the other way, and California (which is where I live) is practically at the same level of freedom as the Soviet Union was under communism (thanks a lot, Democrats), which means the going is getting pretty tough, it is time for us to get tougher, fight harder, and be involved.  Are you with me?

September 11, 2001 should have been a wake-up call.  Obama should have been a bigger wake-up call.

This is not the time for complacency.

The problem is, until we realize and are willing to admit the Democrats are waging a Marxist Revolution, and Islam also is waging war against us, we will continue to drop into the bottom of barrel.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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