Memories that I formed immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks have never been difficult to recall. I know what I was doing that morning in the local newspaper’s newsroom and how it felt to first learn that planes were intentionally flown into the Twin Towers in New York City.
Quickly I was dividing my attention in two directions. One part was focused on work as we scrambled on deadline to report stories with a local angle, which wasn’t difficult given our proximity to Fort Campbell. The other part of my attention was tracking personal fears. I wondered, if things went to hell very quickly, would my husband and I be able to get our family pulled together in a safe place. We had a seventh-grader across town at his school and a college sophomore in Lexington, who wasn’t answering her phone.
Twenty-five years later, maybe my personal fears sound like an overreaction. But in those moments, many of us were experiencing terror because we didn’t know what else might happen.
Later that day and into the evening and the next morning, I was home in front of the den television set watching news coverage. My son and several of his buddies were on bikes in the neighborhood. Occasionally, Chris would stick his head in the door to ask, “Did they catch them yet?”
A year later, I covered a ceremony in downtown Hopkinsville commemorating the first anniversary of the attacks.
A few dozen local firefighters and police officers stood shoulder to shoulder in the middle of East Ninth Street, facing the clock tower on the old fire station as the bell in the tower chimed 11 times.
At that ceremony, Christian County Historian William T. Turner spoke about previous occasions when the bell tolled. These included the election of Herndon native Adlai Stevenson as vice president in 1892 and the approach of Night Riders during the Tobacco Wars in 1907. The bell chimed to mark the end of fighting in both world wars. It rang at the beginning of a new century on Jan. 1, 1900, and again on Jan. 1, 2000.
On the 10th anniversary of the attacks, I interviewed my high school history teacher, Marvin Denison, who spoke about changes he wanted his students to understand. Many of them were too young to recall in great detail what happened on the day terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon — and attempted another attack with a plane that passengers heroically took over and crashed in rural Pennsylvania. More than anything, Denison said, our country’s sense of well-being had been affected, but it wasn’t obvious to teenagers who had come to accept extra security measures and surveillance in many aspects of life.
In the years since the 10th anniversary, I have not formed as many strong memories of commemorations. But others have not forgotten the importance of remembrance.
This week in Hopkinsville, local firefighters recognized the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11 by honoring the memory of first-responders who died trying to save Americans in the attacks. The Hopkinsville Fire Department has remembered their sacrifices every year since 2001. This year, in tribute, nearly 40 firefighters and emergency medical personnel climbed the four-story training tower at Station 5 on Walton Way. Each one carried the name of a first-responder who died on Sept. 11. The names were read aloud after each HFD member descended the training tower.
These rituals are important. It is part of our best effort to never forget the horror of Sept. 11, the people who died that day and a diminished sense of well-being for all of us.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
