Remembering September 12
I often think about September 12, 2001. Yes, you read that correctly – not September 11, but September 12.
September 11 is easy to remember. It was a tragic “where were you when” day. I remember well. I had just dropped my daughter off at kindergarten and was in Dallas rush hour sitting on the I-635 LBJ loop driving to my office in Richardson. As usual, I was listening to KRLD 1080 getting regular traffic updates to know if I needed to exit early before hitting Central Expressway. The news came on about a plane accident at the World Trade Center a few moments earlier. They were actually speaking to someone live on the ground explaining that a plane had hit the tower and while he was talking, he actually said another plane was flying low and that it was going to hit another tower then the guy’s phone went dead.
At that point I, and most everyone else, knew there was something wrong. By the time I got to my office, my staff were beside themselves. We tried to work but it was useless. We wound up having the television on in the conference room, and we would watch as much as we could stand then go to our offices for a while and try to sort things out, then return. That cycle went on until mid-afternoon until finally we were all so beside ourselves to get home to our children, we closed up early and left.
At the time I lived in a large suburban neighborhood. That evening I took down my OU flag which I proudly flew in between my two neighbors who flew their University of Texas and Texas A&M University flags and replaced it with our U.S. flag. My neighbors had done likewise. By the time we reached the evening of September 12, every single house in our neighborhood was flying a U.S. flag. Yes, every single one.
The ensuing days were very strange for us all, but one thing we had was unity as Americans. Congress, both democrat and republican, stood side by side and sang on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, and people were friendlier and kinder to one another than normal. Flying U.S. flags was the norm. In fact, by the end of the day flags were difficult to find in stores as everyone was getting them to show solidarity for our great nation. At sporting events that followed, the crowd stood and sang along to the National Anthem, no kneeling, no disrespect, and no hiding.
America has many diverse groups – African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and Caucasians. However, on September 12, none of that mattered. We were all Americans. People supported each other, they surrounded each other, they watched out for each other.
Somewhere along the way, our nation has changed and not for the better. Now, many want us to believe it is wrong to be proud of our country. They have pushed a narrative that being patriotic is bad and backward, flying our flag is immoral and illegal, and showing support to our military, police and other first responders is wrong. Many say we are blank-Americans and not just Americans. The memorials and statues of our founding fathers, many who gave everything they had and even their lives to give us a nation of freedoms and liberty, are being destroyed.
Let us remember how we were on September 12, 2001 and act accordingly now before it’s too late, or else it may take another tragedy like September 11 to get us back on track.
Randy Gibson is the CEO of RDG Communications Group, LLC, and the former director of the Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce and the Texas State Rifle Association.
