Posted: Thursday, September 11, 2008 12:00 am
Today marks the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, in which terrorists crashed hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.
We said then it would be the day that changed the United States forever. Perhaps it did. But the truth is that not enough time has passed for anyone to make that judgment. Certainly, those among us who thought that the attacks might usher in a United States that would perhaps become more serious about our place in the world likely have been disappointed.
We can spend time today - and we will, and we should - debating how our war against terror has proceeded in the seven years since then, the mistakes we have made, the victories we have achieved. We can talk, and we should, about whether we have sacrificed too many of our civil liberties here at home in the fight against terrorism.
In the heat and fury of this election year, we can debate which of the national candidates are best suited to lead us into an uncertain world.
But in the midst of all of this, we should pause today to remember this: On this day seven years ago, 2,974 people lost their lives. Families and friends lost loved ones. Many more thousands of lives did change, irrevocably, forever.
That's why it's important to remember stories like the one on our front page today, a riveting account from Robin Klemm, today the head of the Austin Family Business Program at Oregon State University. Seven years ago today, Klemm was in the World Trade Center. She got out, but her life changed, irrevocably, forever.
Some lives ended in the wreckage. Some lives changed in the aftermath. Some lives changed in the course of a telephone call or an e-mail bearing the news.
Those of us lucky enough to not have a personal link of some kind to the 9/11 attacks can be grateful for that. But, today in particular, we should remember those among us who were not so fortunate.