Bear Flat Dispatch: Remembering 9/11

September 11, 2026 By Ken Boon

Today the world commemorates the 25^th anniversary of the terrorist attack in the US that went on to have further tragic global impacts. 

Photo: Courtesy of the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when news broke about planes flying into the World Trade Center towers.  Arlene did not normally work with us in the log home business, but I had sweet-talked her into helping with some restoration work we were doing on the historic St. Peters Church in Hudson’s Hope, and we were at home preparing for the day when news broke on the radio.  Of course, the shocking scenes that followed live on TV were devastating and hard to watch. 

Just one week earlier, I had been up in the mountains guiding an elk hunter to help an outfitter with a shortage of guides for one hunt.  Bret and Ben, the clients in our camp, were lifelong friends from Tennessee on the hunt of a lifetime.  It was a fun trip with two great guys who loved the outdoors. 

I guided Bret, while another guide was with Ben, but we all spent time together fishing and visiting after they both got elk.  As is often the case, we all parted as friends after the hunt.  Ben was some kind of financial adviser or investor and worked for a large firm that had offices in the World Trade Center and elsewhere.  While he normally worked from an office close to home, he was scheduled to work out of the World Trade Center the following week. 

Watching the horrific scenes on September 11^th, my thoughts turned to Ben and his fate.  When I later reached out to Bret dreading to hear the worst, it was with much relief to hear that in one of those tiny twists of fate, it turned out that Ben’s trip to New York had been postponed, and he was safe at home.

The 9/11 attacks were fueled by a deep-seated hatred that went on to fuel more hatred and a desire for retribution on all sides that fueled wars that killed thousands more with no real beneficial goals achieved.  Essentially, the playbook of most human conflicts in history.  Meanwhile we lose sight of the fact that we are one species floating miraculously though space on this amazing planet, and the only successful path forward is for all of us is to figure out how to work together instead of hating and killing each other.

That is why to me, the current state of the relationship between the US and the rest of the world is very sad and frustrating.  Hopefully, the voting public in the US will strongly rebuke Donald Trump and his MAGA madness mentality and the US can get back to being a better world neighbor.  Commemorating the victims of 9/11 should not be about politics, but unfortunately, the overwhelming nastiness that is constantly spewed from the Trump administration right now makes everything political.