Twenty-two years ago today, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, while United Airlines Flight 93 crash-landed in Pennsylvania after passengers’ heroic attempt to overtake control from the hijackers.
In all, 2,997 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks whom we still remember and mourn today.
And as many Americans do, Glenn Beck remembers the attacks well.
After the planes hit the towers and our world was thrown into complete disarray, Glenn penned an essay called “The Greatest American Generation.”
However, after re-reading it this past weekend, he’s been left wondering how much of what he wrote then remains true today.
“The question is not if this is the greatest American generation; the question is: will we wake up and become it,” Glenn recalls writing.
While he saw in his grandparents a true, hard-working, American spirit, he believed even back in 2001 it had already been weakening on a much larger scale.
“It hasn’t died out; we’ve just not attended to it. It’s a flame that flickers in all of us, and it is there ready to blaze again to life when we’re ready to face the challenges that now lie at our feet. It’s what sets us apart; it’s what built this country,” he reads.
While the attacks should serve as a reminder of what we fight for, Glenn believes many Americans have become complacent.
“Twenty-two years ago, we were lucky enough not to be trapped in one of those towers or on a plane or in the Pentagon. When is the last time you gave thanks for the last 20 years? Not for our lives, for the ability to have more time to change our ways. God has not forsaken us,” Glenn says.
“I wrote at the time, ‘Americans aren’t ever going to scatter,’” Glenn continues. “‘Let the world recognize through our actions today that those firefighters in New York are not the exception, they are the rule. Because Americans don’t run from burning buildings, we run into them.'”
“Is that still true?” he asks.
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