Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-33)
Twenty-five years ago, America awoke beneath a clear blue September sky. Before Sept. 11, 2001 was over, nearly 3,000 innocent lives were gone, families across our nation had been shattered and America had been forever changed.
A quarter century later, we gather again to remember a day seared into our nation’s soul. We remember the World Trade Center towers burning against that impossibly blue sky. We remember the gaping wound in the Pentagon. We remember firefighters, police officers, paramedics and other first responders running toward danger while thousands desperately sought to escape it. We remember those who went to work that morning, boarded an airplane, reported for duty or said goodbye to their families without knowing it would be for the last time.
And here in Pennsylvania, we remember a quiet field near Shanksville where ordinary Americans performed an extraordinary act of courage. Pennsylvania has stood at the crossroads of American history before. In 1776, courageous men gathered in Philadelphia and declared that liberty was worth risking their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. In 1863, Americans at Gettysburg gave what Abraham Lincoln called the “last full measure of devotion” so that our nation might endure and experience a new birth of freedom.
Then came 2001. Once again, events in Pennsylvania became part of the story of America.
The passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 93 learned what had happened in New York and at the Pentagon. Through telephone calls from the aircraft, they came to understand that theirs was not an ordinary hijacking and that their plane was likely headed toward another target.
They faced an unimaginable choice. They called the people they loved. They said goodbye. They prayed. And then they fought back. The passengers charged the cockpit, and Flight 93 never reached its intended target. Whatever terror awaited the people on the ground was prevented because Americans aboard that aircraft chose courage over fear, action over surrender and sacrifice over self. That field in Pennsylvania became sacred ground.
Today, twenty-five years later, remembering Sept. 11 carries a new urgency. An entire generation of Americans has grown to adulthood with no personal memory of that morning. Millions more were born afterward. For them, 9/11 is history rather than memory.
That means those of us who remember have a responsibility to remember for them. It is one reason I introduced Senate Bill 290, enacted as Act 25 of 2024, to ensure that Pennsylvania schools pause for a moment of silence annually on Sept. 11 and that future generations learn about the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93.
This is about more than curriculum. It is about national memory. A nation that forgets its heroes risks forgetting what made it worthy of their sacrifice. Our children should understand that the freedoms they inherited were neither inevitable nor free. They should know the names and stories of those who came before them and recognize that history sometimes places ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
Teach them about Philadelphia in 1776. Teach them about Gettysburg in 1863. Teach them about that field near Shanksville in 2001. And teach them about Todd Beamer and the other passengers and crew of Flight 93. Before the passengers made their final charge, Beamer prayed while speaking by telephone with an operator. Then came words that would echo far beyond the final moments of Flight 93:
“Are you guys ready? Okay. Let’s roll.”
Those words endure because they capture something essential about Sept. 11. Terrorists sought to demonstrate American weakness. Instead, the world witnessed American courage. Amid horror and confusion, people helped strangers. First responders climbed stairways others were fleeing. Passengers aboard an aircraft realized that no one else could save them and chose to act.
Twenty-five years have passed, but time must not be allowed to turn memory into abstraction. Behind every number was a person. Behind every person was a family. Behind every act of courage was a human being who faced fear and chose what to do next.
The best memorial we can give those we lost is not simply to remember how they died, but to remember how Americans responded. May we tell their stories. May we teach them to our children. May we remain worthy of the courage shown that September morning.
And may we never forget. God bless the fallen. God bless their families. God bless Pennsylvania. And God bless the United States of America.
Sen. Doug Mastriano represents the 33rd Senatorial District, covering all of Adams and Franklin counties.