Thoughts on the 25th anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York City
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Ron Dotts
Bellefonte
As most of us know, Friday Sept. 11, 2026 is the 25th anniversary of the attack by foreign terrorist in New York City and Washington, DC. On Sept. 11, 2001, four aircraft were highjacked by al Qaeda terrorists. Two headed for Washington, DC; one aimed at The White House and one aimed at The Pentagon; and two headed for The Twin Towers in New York City. It is assumed that Flight 93 highjacked plane was headed for The White House. Some of the true heroes of that day were passengers on Flight 93 who courageously broke into the cockpit of that plane (manned by the terrorists), knowing full well they all would die on that flight. Their courage certainly saved The White House from total destruction. It was then, that the byline "Let's Roll" became a phrase of incredible heroism.
Sept. 11, 2001, was a beautiful sunny day here in Spring Township. Back then I had a home-based business and was busy in my office that morning. One of the creature-comforts of a home office was having a TV in my office. Around 9:00 a.m., news started trickling in about a plane having hit one of the Twin Towers in New York. I froze, work stopped, my FULL attention was directed to what was going on in NYC. You know the rest of the story.
In the months and years that followed, the byline "Failure of Imagination" rang true. Nobody imagined that a major terrorist attack could happen within our borders. We were still in an "age of innocence," with a sense of invulnerability.
Life changed that day. Our sense of safety was transformed into a sense of frightening vulnerability.