As part of its rememberance of the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, CNN replayed its television coverage of the attacks in real-time, as the events happened, starting at 8:30 a.m.- minutes before the first plane struck five years ago.

The events were streamed via CNN Pipeline, CNN’s video news service that provides live and on-demand video through broadband Internet connections. The service normally requires a subscription fee, but free trial-day passes were available.

Ed Board feels that replaying the video from that day was beneficial. Many people, especially those who live on the West Coast, woke up that fateful morning to find that the world had gone and changed on them. Yesterday, for the first time, people were able to witness the day as it happened in an honest and unbiased way.

The stream of actual news footage is important for every American to see. In a world where conspiracy theories run rampant, what could be the drawback of seeing exactly what happened as it happened? Whether you agree with the war in Iraq, denying the importance of the events of Sept. 11 is foolish. The day has gone down as one of the most significant in United States history.

The CNN footage served primarily as a reminder. If Americans forget how we as a nation felt on Sept. 11 as we watched the towers fall, then we do a disservice to the citizens who perished in the attacks and the men and women who died trying to save them.