“We All Watched”

In memory of September 11, 2001

We all watched it happen.
We remember exactly where we were.

It was a morning like any other—clear skies, quiet streets, a normal Tuesday. And then, the world changed in seconds. A plane hit the North Tower. Then another. Then the Pentagon. Then the ground in Pennsylvania split open with the weight of a fourth hijacked flight, brought down by bravery.

We saw people running through ash-filled streets, covered in dust and blood, their faces twisted in disbelief. We saw towers collapse—collapse—as if they were made of paper. We saw lives disappear in clouds of smoke and steel.

We didn’t just lose buildings that day. We lost thousands of innocent people. We lost parents, children, firefighters, police officers, friends, neighbors. We lost a sense of safety we hadn’t even known we were holding on to.

And we felt it. The horror. The helplessness. The rage.

Because it wasn’t just an attack. It was an execution carried out in front of the entire world. It was hate made visible. Evil made real. They used our planes, our freedom, our open skies against us—and they did it without warning, without mercy.

We felt the anger boil beneath our grief. We weren’t just mourning. We were furious.

And we still are.

It’s been 24 years. And each year, fewer people remember how the air smelled, how the news anchors choked back tears, how quiet the world went in the days after. The children who weren’t yet born now learn about 9/11 from textbooks and grainy video clips. But we lived it. We watched it. We felt the sky fall.

We promised we’d never forget. But time has a way of softening even the sharpest pain. Some people move on. Some stop talking about it. Some try to make it distant—historical, abstract, political.

But not us.

Because we remember the flames. We remember the jumpers. We remember the fear in every airport, every subway, every time a plane flew too low. We remember the names read every year, each one a life stolen, a family shattered.

And today, as we stand in the shadow of that loss, we remember the anger too. We should be angry. Because what happened on September 11 was not just tragic—it was unforgivable.

We all watched.
We all remember.
We are still not over it.
And we never should be.