9/11, as we remember it 21 years later.

Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. That date was instantly seared into the memories of everyone, not only in the USA, but also worldwide.

As we remember the September
11th, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington 21 years ago
today, we ought to think about how life can change on a dime. It may
not have happened locally, but it affected all of us deeply.

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, 19 angry guys hijacked and
took over four passenger jets with guns, box cutters, and planted
explosives.

American Airlines Flight 11, enroute from Boston, Massachusetts to
Los Angeles, California, was hijacked and crashed into the north tower
of the World Trade Center.

United Airlines Flight 175, enroute from Boston, Massachusetts to Los
Angeles, California, was hijacked and crashed into the south tower of
the World Trade Center. A bomb planted onboard the plane went
completely through the building and out the other side, where it then
crashed through the roof of WTC 6 and detonated, leaving WTC 6
irrepairably damaged.

American Airlines Flight 77, enroute from Washington, DC to Los Angeles, California, was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon.

United Airlines Flight 93, enroute from Newark, New Jersey to San
Francisco, California, was hijacked, was briefly taken back by a group
of passengers, but was quickly blown up by the hijackers who planted a
bomb on board, causing the plane to break up in midair and crash in
rural Pennsylvania.

One thing that makes me take it personal is that there were children
on those hijacked planes, too. An entire family, Leslie Whittington,
Charles Falkenberg, and their two daughters 3 year old Dana and 8 year
old Zoe, were on a trip of a lifetime on an international trip to
Australia. They were looking forward to a fun trip, and then the plane
they were on, American Airlines Flight 77, was hijacked and crashed into
the Pentagon. The entire family, as well as everyone on board the
plane, along with over 1,000 people in the Pentagon, were killed.

Jet fuel burns at extremely high temperatures of roughly 4,000C
(around 7,232F). And that burning jet fuel spilled right down the cores
of both World Trade Center towers, melting, boiling, and vaporizing
everything in it's path, including the steel frames, until it reached
the basements of both buildings no more than 10 minutes after each impact. People were jumping from over 100
stories above the streets because the fires in the towers were so
burning hot.

Fueled by the jet fuel from the planes, the fires in the towers were nearly as hot as the surface of the Sun.
Those towers stood no chance, those fires melted, boiled, and
vaporized the steel frames, core columns, and floor trusses, producing
thick clouds of iron vapor that spewed into the sky and produced showers
of steel pellets that fell throughout southern Manhattan. Heavily
melted and weakened by the extreme heat of the fires and the loss of
nearly the full height of their core frames, the south tower collapsed
in freefall at 9:59 am, followed by the north tower at 10:28. Over
6,000 people were killed at the World Trade Center. Even 3 months
later, crews cleaning up the wreckage saw pools of boiling steel and
iron vapor that were so hot it even melted the shovel of one of their
bulldozers.

Half the Pentagon was also reduced to rubble by the burning jet fuel
from American Airlines Flight 77. Spalling of brick and concrete,
warping/fracturing of windows, cracks in walls, and other heat damage
was even noticed on the side of the building opposite from the point of
impact.

Not only were all 19 of those hijackers illegal immigrants and
members of al-Qaeda, but all 19 of those hijackers were also single adult
men. Not a single one of those hijackers was in a relationship with,
engaged, or married to, a woman, they were all single when they did
their terrorist attacks, all 19 of them.

They were those exact kinds of guys that go
and hang out at bars and nightclubs, especially by themselves and
without a group of people.

They were those exact kinds of guys that you see sitting all alone by themselves at bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.

They were those exact kinds of guys that, while alone at bars, nightclubs, street and park festivals, concerts, and restaurants, they try to mingle with other people and "join in" on them and who try to get other patrons at nightclubs to dance with them.

They were those exact kinds of guys that go alone to street and park festivals, concerts, and celebrations.

They were those exact kinds of guys that ask other people to meet up with them at said events and places.

And they were those exact kinds of guys that ask someone to give them a ride somewhere.