As we remember Sept. 11, let us also reflect on the spirit of Sept. 12

Today the names of 2,977 men, women and children will be read to mark the single largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum plans to observe six moments of silence during the reading, acknowledging when each of the World Trade Center towers was struck and fell and the times corresponding to the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93.

The first moment of silence was to be held at 8:46 a.m. EST, or 7:46 a.m. our time, the moment the first plane struck the north tower of the Twin Towers. Depending on when you picked up your paper today, you may have already heard houses of worship sound their bells marking this moment. Houses of worship nationwide were asked to acknowledge this time.

On the 20th anniversary, the loss and terrible grief of that day feels as fresh as when we first learned hijackers had turned airplanes into weapons to attack our country in New York, Washington D.C. and at the Pentagon.

Their plan failed in at least one instance.

There are 37 telephone calls known to have been made from Flight 93 before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field at 10:03 a.m., just four minutes after the collapse of the South Tower.

When passenger Jeremy Glick called his wife at 9:37 a.m., he told her passengers were voting on whether or not to storm the cockpit. He told Lyzbeth he loved her and asked her to keep the line open. She did for the next 126 minutes.

At 9:43 a.m., passenger Todd Beamer spoke to an airfone operator and asked that his wife be given a message. He loved her, he said. At approximately 10 a.m., he said they were going to attack the hijackers.

At approximately the same time, flight attendant Sandy Bradshaw was on the phone with her husband. The group was going to get hot water from the galley and rush the hijackers, who were reported to have knives and what they had told passengers was an explosive device.

One last phone call was taken by 911 operators in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Passenger Edward Felt spoke with operators for 70 seconds before the plane crashed, marking another tragedy on American soil, but the success of those on board.

The passengers of Flight 93 united behind one goal, to storm the cockpit of the plane and stop this act of terrorism.

At a ceremony two years later at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Sandy Dahl, the wife of Flight 93 pilot Jason Dahl said, “If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate.”

This week, as we mark the 20th anniversary of that day, local Afghanistan veteran Wesley Gautreaux urged residents to remember Sept. 12, 2001, a day he believes the country was the most united in the past 20 years.

Sept. 12 was a day when we joined arms and let go of petty grievances, old grudges and crossed the imaginary fences we create between ourselves and our neighbors.

As you pause to remember your grief on Sept. 11, 2001, please take a moment to reflect on the spirit of unity you felt Sept. 12, 2001.