This year’s September 11 marked the 4th year anniversary of our nation’s most devastating tragedy. I can’t believe it’s been 4 years already! I still have the vivid images of watching the plane crashed into World Trade Center and the collapses of the 2 towers. It seemed like it was just yesterday!

I was watching some documentary films about 911 on Discovery Channel last week. One was the “Story from the Ruins”. They filmed how the workers searched carefully for personal items among the rubble. Then they interviewed each victim’s family whom have received the personal items from their loved ones. One of the victims was a police officer. She was on the first floor of WTC directing other people to get out of the building while the tower collapsed. They found pieces of her uniform,badge, cap and handcuff, which are now displayed in the memorial museum. Her husband took their young daughter to the museum everyday, showed her those items and told her how brave and heroic her mother was. She sacrificed her own life trying to save others.

Another victim was a young executive assistant in one of the companies in WTC. Her parents received a bent credit card found in the ruins with their daughter’s name on it. The mother held the credit card carefully in her hand, commented with tears in her eyes,”The credit card itself doesn’t mean anything. But just to know that this is something that she had, something she used regularly…..it means the world to us.” I was literally crying while watching those sad interviews. Even after so many years, there are still thousands of missing victims whose bodies have never been found. Their family could only look at those personal effects to remember their loved ones.

Another film I watched was “Flight 93-The Flight That Fought Back”. It reenacted the final moments of United Flight 93, which crashed onto an empty field in Pennsylvania. They showed several recorded phone conversations and messages between the victims and their families, and actual recordings from the cockpit . It was firmly believed that the passengers of Flight 93 took actions to stop the hijackers from crashing into another capitol building. These 40 passengers and crews were viewed as heroes.Their action saved possibly hundreds of other lives.

4 years have passed. The 911 issue is still not settled. We’re still battling in Iraq and thousands of lives died as a result of the war. Many innocent lives have lost due to 911. Do we need to kill more people just for revenge? Personally I’m not a warmonger and I really wish we can maintain peace in the world as soon as possible. However, judging by our world situation today, seems like it’ll be awhile before my wish can be fulfilled.