This past weekend our nation observed the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Like the weather this year the weather throughout the northeast that day was perfect with a golden late summer sun shinning down from a cloudless and vibrant blue sky.

I was not working that day and was still in bed when the first plane hit the North Tower at 8:46. My wife awakened me shortly thereafter and when I reached a television set it was just in time to see a second plane hit the South Tower around 9 a.m. At first, I thought that what I was seeing was a replay of the first plane strike but quickly realized this was a new attack.

It was shortly after this that our youngest son called. Based in Boston, and working for a company that has a worldwide network of temporary office centers he had spent several days a week for a number of weeks at his employer’s center in the South Tower helping to get the new center up and running. He wanted to let us know that he wasn’t at the World Trade Center on that morning but back in his own center in Boston. That was a relief.

At around 20 minutes of 10 word came that another aircraft had crashed into the Pentagon starting fires in that building and killing and injuring many. Suddenly it hit me that the United States was under attack and that someone was attempting to behead the command-and-control structure of our armed forces. That was scary.

The television reports were coming in one after the other now. it was announced that the White House and the Capital buildings were being evacuated, that Vice President Dick Cheney had been moved to a place of safety, and that President Bush and his party had departed Sarasota Florida on Air Force One for no known destination.

As all this went on another explosion was reported by television news as what appeared to be plume of smoke rose from the Trade Center area. However, this was not an explosion but the collapse of the South Tower sending choking clouds of dust throughout lower Manhattan. Shortly thereafter my son called again to tell us that before the South tower was hit his boss had called the companies center there to tell the staff to evacuate the building, but couldn’t get through. Now it was obvious that they had all perished.

Sometime between 10 and 10:30 reports came in that another hijacked aircraft had plowed into the ground near Shanksville, Pa., with later reports indicating that passengers had attacked the hijackers before they could carry out what was thought to have been an attack on either the White House or the Capital.

Around this time an Air Force interceptor coming from the south flew low over Silver Creek heading north. I suspected that it one of many aircraft sent to shoot down the plane over Pennsylvania if necessary. It shook the windows but left me with the sense that we were beginning to fight back.

Except for the Kennedy assassination there had been no day like this in my life. I think the day left most of us bewildered, confused, and wondering what the coming days would bring. By the end of the day and in the coming days it became clear that it was a terrorist attack. These groups had vowed to destroy America because of our support of Israel, because we were a free society, and because we have a free and open economy, all of which they hate. For them the World Trade Center complex was a symbol of all these things and it had to be destroyed. They failed in 1993 but they did not this time.

Three thousand died in the 9/11 attacks but in the last 20 years over 4,600 police, firemen, and construction workers working at the Trade Center site along with average citizens living and working in lower Manhattan have died of cancer, COPD and other diseases caused by the contamination from the fires and building collapses. Today ten-thousand persons are still living with cancers and other diseases that developed in the wake of the attack.

In my own family, several years ago my son-in-law who at the time of the attack worked for a printing company in lower Manhattan developed cancer related to his exposure.

Fortunately, a portion of his treatment was covered by a fund for victims that will continue in existence for another seventy years ensuring that the last 9/11 victims will be able to receive aid if it is needed.

9/11 brought this country together to fight an enemy in a way that had not been seen since December 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan.

Our reaction to the events of Sept. 11, 2001 should serve as a warning to any potential foe that no matter how divided we may sometimes appear to outsiders, an attack on this nation will bring about harsh and total retribution.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com