Xinhua News Agency, Shanksville, USA, September 10thFeature: Bitter Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of “September 11″——Visit to the crash site of US Flight 93
Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Jianmei Deng Xianlai Liu Pinran
The “Tower of Sound” was silent, and the “Wall of Names” stood silently. In the “September 11” incident, Flight 93 crashed and returned to the peaceful wilderness, and there was no trace of scorch from that day 20 years ago.
“The scenery is the same as before. We haven’t made any changes.” Paul Donati, a staff member of the National Memorial on Flight 93, told Xinhua News Agency that except for the trees that were charred by the crash and were removed for safety reasons, the rest were all removed. As it is.
On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked a civilian airliner and rushed to landmarks in the US economy, military, and politics. United Airlines Flight 93, the fourth and last one, crashed in the countryside near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
No one survived. At the time of the crash, the flight time from Flight 93 to Washington was only 18 minutes. The target of the hijackers is believed to be the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
Including the 40 civilians on Flight 93, a total of 2977 innocent people were killed in the “September 11” incident, leaving behind their relatives, careers and unfinished life dreams.
In the memorial hall, picking up the headset, you can hear the recordings of the last conversations between several passengers and their relatives on the ground. For the father, for the husband, for the children; calm, trembling, crying… Outside the memorial, a group of artists were kneeling or sitting, comparing photos and drawing large heads of the flight victims with colored chalk.
“Shocked”, “sad” and “too many lives have been lost.” After 20 years, many Americans who visited the crash site said that this is still their deepest impression of the “September 11” incident.
In the past 20 years, the largest terrorist attack on the United States, the two protracted overseas wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the global “war on terrorism” that frequently caused controversy and regional turmoil, the United States and many people outside the United States have paid for it. Unexpected price.
20 years later, is the United States safer and stronger?
Regarding the threat of external terrorism facing the United States today, most interviewees gave the answer “probably safer,” but most of them shook their heads in disapproval of the second question.
David Rabell, a photographer who rushed to the crash site to shoot 20 years ago, said that he did not think that the United States was stronger because ordinary Americans did not live better; and from the perspective of vaccines, race, and partisan politics, the United States “now It is a severely divided country”.
Ottom Joy Colton, a nurse from Florida, said that she thinks the United States has a bad reputation in many countries, “I think we are arrogant and think that the rest of the world should be like us.”
Vietnam War veteran Larry Schroeder said that he believes that the biggest problem in the United States today is not thinking about issues from a group or overall perspective. He hoped that the United States would continue to develop international cooperation with other countries including China.
Will the United States launch overseas wars in the future?
Petty Miller, who has retired, said that it is still possible in her view because the United States “likes to control everything.”
Schroeder said that no matter what happens, “war is never the solution.”
As the setting sun gradually falls, the evening clouds converge, and the evening breeze is blowing over this originally unknown country with autumnal meaning. Not far from the crash site is the graveyard of the 40 victims of Flight 93. The memorial 20 years later is still solemn, but people’s emotions are no longer fierce, and there is a bit of bitterness in the calm. (Participating reporters: Hu Yousong, Tan Yixiao, Xu Yuan)
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