The attacks came 10 years ago today, preceded by Al-qaeda attacks on US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in1998, and a suicide attack against a US destroyer, the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000. Earlier, in 1993, the twin towers had been blasted at their base by individuals enamored with their violent, nihilistic viewpoint, cloaked and grounded in a narrow interpretation of Islam.
10 years later, the 2nd grade children President Bush read to that morning in Florida are in their senior year of high school. Many high schoolers in 2001 volunteered for duty with the US military, and today are out making their way in a deep recession. Many others, of course, have died or been injured in the course of the "long war" against terror.
So much patriotism, vitriol, fleeting unity, and stirred passions have impacted and shaken the nation we live in today. And yet, discomfited as a people, Americans seem to have found a way again to slow down a bit, and remember the victims of those attacks and the bravery of others shown in so many ways.
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Teacher Sandra Kay Daniel and former students' from her second grade class at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., witnessed the moment when President George W. Bush learned America was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001. Now seniors in high school, Natalia Jone-Pinkney, Chantal Guerrero, Mariah Williams, and Lazaro Dubrocq
There are now two square pools, each with a waterfall cascading into a smaller center where the footprints of the towers stood.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle walk with former President Bush and wife Laura around the New York City pools.
The victim's families and others who simply made the trek to the dedication also reflected and engaged this history ...
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Elle Jackman,6, helps her mother, Iris Jackman, do a rubbing of her aunt's name, Brook Alexander Jackman
Robert Peraza, who lost his son Robert David Peraza in the attacks at the World Trade Center, pauses at his son's name at the North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial
Former President Clinton speaking at the Shanksville, Pennsylvania site where Flight 93 plunged to the ground as its passengers fought against the highjackers on September 11, 2001
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