Where were you when you heard about the events of ten years ago today? I was in my office of the John W. Eye Conference Center at Mountain State University. I had the only office on that particular floor – so it was a quiet environment most of the time. Shortly before 9:00 AM, my wife called me on that Tuesday morning and said a plane had just slammed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.
She was convinced that it was a terrorist induced activity – I was not until she screamed that a second plane hit the other tower. My comment at that time was that it was “Bin Laden.” The rest of the morning was a blur as the news began reporting about the plane that hit the Pentagon and the fourth plane that crashed in Somerset County, PA.
Reports were coming in about the FAA ordering all planes to land immediately and that American airspace was closed to all traffic except military aircraft. Later that afternoon, my friend Dave Robbins (our corporate pilot) brought me a copy of the FAA notice closing US airspace – I still have this stashed away among some papers.
Some of our international students were being harassed by locals from the community, but thankfully this did not get out of hand. Most of the classes were cancelled for the rest of the day as students and faculty could not cope with the routine during this tragedy. I canceled my Tuesday night web design class as it was too much for me to process.
I remember that morning also getting an email from my 7th cousin Tim in England expressing his condolences about the events of the day and how the British have had to live in fear of terrorist attacks for years. It was an attack on American soil – the first of such a magnitude since the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. I remember in church that Sunday one of our leaders standing up stating that “we lost some of our freedom this week.”
The images of the burning towers and their eventual collapse are indelibly etched on the minds of Americans who were old enough to remember. Dave Pettigrew has recorded a tribute to 9-11 and he reminds us, that in a world that is as bleak as ours is, “There is Hope.” All proceeds from this release are channeled to Tuesday’s Children – a charity that benefits those who were directly impacted by the events of September 11, 2001 as well as those who suffered due to more recent terrorist events.
Let us never forget that “There is Hope.”
Lyrics
VERSE 1:
Ten years later I remember blue September skies
I remember how the city streets were so alive
Ten years later there are questions that still haunt my mind
Answers that are hard to find, places that remind me of you
In this life there are no guarantees
CHORUS:
There’s a hope, there’s a faith, there is love for the whole human race
There’s a hope, we receive, that lets us hold on tight to all we believe
Hope never quits, hope never dies, hope is still alive
VERSE 2:
Ten years later you are still the shelter from the storm
You are still the rock that I have built this house upon
Ten years later even though the tears still fall,
God you’ve held me through it all, And I can still call on you
And you alone are the savior of us all
CHORUS:
There’s a hope, there’s a faith, there is love for the whole human race
There’s a hope, we receive, that lets us hold on tight to all we believe
Hope never quits, hope never dies, hope is still alive
BRIDGE:
In our hearts there is a God, who will go to any length
And a holy cloud of witnesses who pray to give us strength
The author and perfecter gives us faith to overcome
And on our knees we pray the words, let your will be done
CHORUS:
There’s a hope, there’s a faith, there is love for the whole human race
There’s a hope, we receive, that lets us hold on tight to all we believe
Hope never quits, hope never dies, hope is still alive
