Josh Benner

Tag: Never Forget

  • Holocaust Remembrance Day and the evils of humanity

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    Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was on this day 75 years ago, Auschwitz Concentration Camp was liberated. More than 1 million people lost their lives at Auschwitz while millions more perished in the hundreds of other concentration camps run by the Nazis.

    But tragically, on a day set apart to remember those who were lost, our world is increasingly forgetting about the holocaust. (more…)

  • Feels like yesterday: 9/11 through the years

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    There aren’t very many days in your life where you know at the time that life is never going to be the same. Everyone knew that on 9/11.
    18 years.
    Today is the only day ever where everyone who was born on or before September 11, 2001 is legally an adult and everyone who was born after that day is still a kid. I’ve thought a lot lately about this day and what the younger generation will understand about 9/11.
    I remember it like it was yesterday, and so it’s crazy for me to consider that kids in school weren’t even born when this event happened. This monumental day that was a paradigm shift in American history is just that to kids, history. They learn about that day from what people tell them and from the same documentaries I watch.
    If you weren’t alive that day, and watch documentaries about 9/11, I think it’s hard to appreciate the chaos of September 11th. There’s a sense of fatalism in the documentaries. They almost always begin by contrasting the beauty of that morning against the pandemonium that was soon to burst forth.
    In the weeks and months after the attacks, it impacted every aspect of our society: sports were a rallying ground for patriotism. Many popular songs were written about that day and playing on the radio. New laws were enacted. Entirely new federal agencies were created. There was an ever present thought of if and when another attack would happen. The whole country was on high alert, arguably for the next 2-3 years.
    As I watch documenaries, the quality of the videos seems a little more dated, the outfits people are wearing seem a little more 90s.
    When the North Tower was struck, no Americans knew that the South Tower was going to be hit 17 minutes later. No one had any idea that other planes were in the process of being highjacked and that other sites were also being targeted. As the towers had smoke pouring out, the average person had no idea that they were going to collapse. From the time the North Tower was struck, three other planes crashed and both towers fell in 102 minutes.
    Last spring, I had the opportunity to visit the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. It’s a special place. One of the rooms (and one of the few parts of the museum where they ask people not to take photos) features photographs of all of the victims of the attacks. Just a huge room with thousands of photos of people. It’s crazy to think that each of those photos is a person who meant something to a lot of people. They were people’s spouses, people’s parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, best friends. All of them taken away because of evil and hatred.
    For many of the victims, the memorial also serves as their final resting place. From the intense fire, and from the incredible weight of the towers collapsing, and given the high numbers of casualties, remains could be hard to positively identify in the aftermath. Roughly 40 percent of victims have never been identified. The museum has a morgue where the unidentified remains are housed.
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    One of the exhibits at the museum is a 36 foot tall column. It was part of the inner-core of the South Tower and was the last piece of debris removed at the completion of the cleanup efforts, nine months later. Workers covered the column in pictures as a memorial to the victims.

    It’s still unfathomable to me. Thousands of people just living their lives, having no idea that they were about to become casualties on the front lines of a war in which they had no idea they were enlisted. The horror that people experienced above impact zones on the towers and on our airplanes. The first responders who risked their lives (and the many who gave their lives) on that day to help others.. For those people, I never forget.

    It’s still unbelievable to me. There’s nothing else like it.

    I think of the people in conference rooms and riding elevators who were dead without ever knowing there was even an attack. I think of the people who jumped from the towers. They were in such a horrible situation that jumping was the lesser of two evils. That still shocks me.

    Originally published September 11, 2018

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    Josh Benner is the pastor of Christian Bible Church in Cissna Park, Illinois. He has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He has an awesome wife named Kari.

  • Jon Stewart rips into congress. Shows some issues still transcend party lines

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    In a testimony that has gone viral this week, comedian Jon Stewart blasted the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday for the absence of many members regarding a hearing for the continuation of a fund for 9/11 first responders.

    In the testimony, Stewart points out that many 9/11 first responders (who are not ailing from 9/11 related illnesses) made the trip from New York to Washington. Stewart blades the committee for this show of disrespect for these 9/11 heroes. (more…)

  • Memorial Day and the importance of remembering

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    American Revolution – 25,000
    War of 1812 – 15,000
    Civil War – 364,511
    World War I – 116,516
    World War II – 405,399
    Korean War – 36,516
    Vietnam – 58,209
    Afghanistan and Iraq – 6,713

    To the hundreds of thousands of men and women who gave their lives in the service and defense of America, thank you. (more…)

  • Shattered peace: 80th anniversary of Nazi’s “Night of Broken Glass”

    From National Holocaust Memorial Museum
    From National Holocaust Memorial Museum

    Throughout Germany and Austria, riots broke out on this night 80 years ago in a night which is infamously referred to as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, after the destruction done to Jewish businesses and properties.

    At least 91 Jewish people were killed; 30,000 men were arrested; hundreds of businesses were damaged or destroyed. Nearly every synagogue in Germany or Austria was damaged or destroyed. (more…)