Guest Commentary: Supervisor Glover offers memories of September 11

By Supervisor Federal Glover

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, the United States suffered the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. 9/11 has become a date that will live in infamy. It is our generation’s equivalent to December 7, 1941. Who can ever forget the jetliners crashing into the New York skyscrapers, bursting into flames, people jumping from the upper stories, the last calls of those trapped inside.

Who can forget the office workers fleeing the burning floors above them and the firemen  dragging their hoses with them, going up the stairs towards the flames.

Who can forget the towers toppling down on workers and the heroic first responders? The mayhem, the dust-covered office workers?

Who can forget other firefighters, policemen and other rescue workers going through the debris to find survivors?

Who can forget the people from all across the nation, including some from Contra Costa County, who dropped what they were doing and rushed to New York to help in the rescue efforts?

Who can forget Flight 93’s heroic passengers, including residents of the Bay Area, who fought the terrorists to prevent the jetliner crashing into the White House or Congress even though it meant their certain death?

The deaths of those 3000 people on 9/11 are seared into our collective memories. We will always remember what we were doing and where we were on that fateful morning.

But there is another memory I’ll always keep with me. I’ll remember the American people rallying around the towers, around New York, around the Pentagon and Flight 93 – that was perhaps among the finest hours of America. We didn’t think about the race of the victims or their rescuers. We didn’t ask if they were Democrat, Republican, liberal or conservative, rich or poor. For those few hours, those few weeks, after the horrible acts of terror; we were united as a country, we were all Americans.

That is what I’ll remember.

Glover represents District 5 on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.


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