Greetings, readers. First of all, my heart goes out to the families of the victims from the attack on September 11, 2001. Never, ever, forget. Keep them close to your hearts and hopefully a tragedy such as that one will never happen again.
Here is a top ten list of tragedies that I remember; that have either happened in my lifetime or that I have read about.
#10. The Oklahoma City bombing. [Ruthlessly planned and executed, it destroyed a building, killed human beings, including little children in the first floor daycare center.]
#9. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill. [For 87 days, oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig owned by British Petroleum, completely destroying the eco-system in that area.]
#8. The Johnstown flood of the 1977. [A terrible line of thunderstorms passed over Pennsylvania and stalled over Johnstown. Almost a foot of rain fell on the city. Dams broke and roads and bridges were washed away. This was Johnstown’s third flood. Some of this information came from the flood museum site.]
#7. Hurricane Hugo. [A massive storm which killed many, injured more, and did billions of dollars in damage, in South Carolina.]
#6. Branch Davidian disaster in Waco, Texas. [After a 51 day stand-off, the authorities moved in on a cult and an inferno began. It is not clear how the fire started but almost everyone inside burned alive.]
#5. Titanic. [In April of 1912, one of the worst maritime disasters occurred. The so-called unsinkable Titanic hit an iceberg and went down. There weren’t enough life boats for everybody and a real pity, which I found out many years later, was that they were only approximately one day away from their destination of New York City.]
#4. The Hindenburg. [On approach to Lakehurst, New Jersey, the massive airship was either struck by lightning or a massive static charge ignited the hydrogen. It quickly became a fireball and its metal frame fell to the ground. Very few survived and most burned alive.]
#3. Hurricane Katrina. [In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina went over Southern Florida, gained steam again in the Gulf of Mexico, then slammed into Louisiana and parts of Mississippi. The beautiful city of New Orleans was effectively drowned. Not only from massive storm water amounts, but also by a break in the levees. In my opinion, relief from the federal government was slow and grossly ineffective. There are many families still trying to recover.]
#2. Pearl Harbor. [The Japanese thrust us into World War II with this attack. On that fateful December day, numerous seamen lost their lives, and the destruction to ships and the military base was great. This would have made number one on my list, but my next choice occurred when I was alive.]
#1. The attack on September 11, 2001. [Just the phrase 9/11 still conjures up visions of death and destruction. I can vividly remember sitting in front of my television watching reply after reply on CNN or Fox News. The twin towers, a symbol of our financial strength, was destroyed. The Pentagon, a symbol of American’s military might, was damaged and then repaired. United flight 93, some experts concluded, was on the way to the capital building; we will never know. The first heroes of this war brought down that aircraft, denying the terrorists their prize. In the months following the attack, I must admit President Bush had his shining moments, but the war on Al Qaeda, because there are so many of them, I fear will go on indefinitely.]
#1 and #2 were attacks on both ends of the country. We can never allow this to happen again.
There is my top ten list. I hope it stirs emotions in you, and I invite you to leave comments on Facebook, Twitter, or here on the blog.
Until next week, have a good weekend, take care, and happy reading.
josephmkockelmans 