Saturday, September 11, 2021

Saturday, September 11, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken on April 9, 2002, five days after Mattie was born. In fact, that may have been Mattie's first day home from the hospital, since we were both hospitalized for five days after he was born. Between his emergency c-section and the fact that they removed a big lipoma from my bladder, I was physically a mess. From all the IV fluids they gave me, I was swollen. My legs were three times their usual size and everything below my waist wasn't functioning very well. Thankfully Peter stayed at the hospital with us to help care for Mattie and me. What I recall vividly was that NO hospital staff or personnel were there to truly care for me or Mattie. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 40,920,922
• Number of people who died from the virus: 659,691

A day never to be forgotten! It is hard to believe that 20 years ago our country was attacked in such a traumatic and deeply disturbing manner. For most of us who were alive on September 11, 2001, we shall never forget the horrific visions we saw on TV, the stories that unfolded, and the level of fear and insecurity that engulfed our lives of months and years there after. For families who lost a loved one in these terrorist attacks, their lives were forever changed.

Though The lights, which were first installed as a month long tribute six months after the attacks, then lit up the sky on the second anniversary of September 11. They have been used as a tribute each year on the anniversary since 2003.

11 Facts that should never be forgotten:

1. On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed, 400 were police officers and firefighters, in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in NYC, at the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C., and in a plane crash near Shanksville, PA.
2. 9/11 was not the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. A bombing in February of 1993 killed six people.
3. On any given workday, up to 50,000 employees worked in the WTC twin towers, and an additional 40,000 passed through the complex.
4. After the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, the rescue and recovery clean-up of the 1.8 million tons of wreckage from the WTC site took 9 months.
5. Passengers aboard United Flight 93, heard about the previous airplane attacks and attempted to retake control of the plane from hijackers. As a result, the hijackers deliberately crashed the plane in a Pennsylvania field instead of at their unknown target.
6. While video accounts of the WTC attack aired immediately, no video footage of the Pentagon attack was publicly released until 2006.
7. Though both the police and fire departments of New York City had their own emergency response procedures, the two departments did not have a coordinated response plan to a major incident.
8. The attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 resulted in the largest loss of life by a foreign attack on American soil.
9. 18 people were rescued alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center site.
10. Cases of post-traumatic stress are common among 9/11 survivors and rescue workers. Respiratory problems, like asthma and lung inflammation, also developed at abnormal rates for those in and around the World Trade Center during and after the attacks.
11. In 2019, the US Senate passed a bill ensuring that a fund to compensate victims of the September 11th attacks never runs out of money — and that first responders won't have to return to Congress to plead for more funding.

This is a video tribute to September 11. It has been classified as disturbing. However, the disturbing part is what it depicts actually happened and people's lives were lost and those who remain behind will never be the same. 

We have not forgotten!