You couldn’t buy one anywhere.

Of all the crazy, world-altering details that I remember from that horrible day 18 years ago, it was that every store had sold out of American flags. No matter who you were or who you voted for, or what you looked like—that was our rallying cry. Everyone was flying a flag after that awful day, because for most of us, it was the most outward way of defying those who had tried to bring us to our knees.

It was really remarkable to witness, but it didn’t surprise me. I knew that’s who we were as Americans.

Today, I’m not sure if that could happen without the major media outlets, a cache of celebrities, and the usual political suspects rushing to label it as dangerously jingoist. At minimum.

Even as I write this, stray thoughts of who may read this and surmise that I MYSELF am a jingoistic nationalist flitter through my mind.

That’s where we are.

How on earth did we ever get here?

How did we get to a place where our country’s athletes—from football players to soccer players representing our country on the world stage—stomp all over the national anthem with their protests, because they actually believe it represents hate and intolerance?

How did we get to a place where our police—the same men and women we once praised two decades ago for running TOWARDS danger on 9/11—are hated with such vitriolic passion that people actually celebrate their deaths?

How did we get to a place where people throw milk and water all over police officers quietly doing their jobs on the streets of New York City (of all places)?

How did we get to a place where professional athletes on national television can wear socks depicting police officers as pigs, but Nike can’t release a sneaker with the very first American flag?

How did we get to a place where two Americans are kicked out of a professional soccer game for bringing that same first flag? How did we get to a place where that flag is a “symbol of hate groups”?

How did we get to a place where “patriotism is for white people” and that our country is a festering dump heap of racism and hatred?

How did we get to a place where countless Democrat presidential candidates are running on the premise that America is a fundamentally awful place?

How did we get to a place where an American lawmaker can make a mockery of 9/11’s memory by referring to it as a day when “some people did something”?

I have my theories, and I do recall a president in the not-so-distant past boast that he was just days away from “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” But, perhaps how we got here isn’t the biggest issue. Right now, at least, I’m more concerned with how we avoid the disastrous crash.

Pause for a second—and journey back with me to the lesser-known of the four plane attacks on 9/11: Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field at a dizzying 575 mph. Its crash was so violent that “shock waves tore insulation from a building in the area and shook a high school 12 miles away.”

Most believe the plane was headed for the United States Capitol building. But, thanks to quick-thinking passengers who learned enough about what was already happening on the ground, that’s not what happened.

Their sheer will to keep that plane in the air—and at the very least out of the control of the terrorists—prevented the further physical destruction of our country. That plane, had it struck the Capitol, would have caused immeasurable chaos.

And they weren’t the only ones.

The September 11th commission details that on United Flight 175 (which would later hit the second tower), “some passengers correctly surmised what was happening and what had to be done.” In the fading minutes before United 175 met its fate, several passengers were on the phone with family, relaying plans similar to that of the heroes on Flight 93.

Readers, if you’ll forgive the comparison (I truly do not mean to diminish what happened on that hallowed morning), that is we are today. We’re fighting for the soul of our country; we fighting to wrest it back from the hands of those who want to see it and everything it stands for, destroyed. And these are not obvious “bad guys” with razor blades and a dangerously sufficient level of knowledge of commercial aircraft; these are college professors, politicians, media types and celebrities who are bent on rewriting history, and erasing the memory of everything good that we’ve ever stood for. Don’t let it happen. Don’t let the would-be transformers of this country succeed at their goal. Don’t let their lies overshadow and overpower the truth.

Those ill-fated passengers… they knew what had to be done. It was either sit back and take it—or fight like hell to protect life, and the country they loved.

They fought.

Readers, don’t give up the fight.

Mary Ramirez is a full-time writer, creator of www.afuturefree.com, and contributor to The Chris Salcedo Show on KSEV 700 Radio in Houston, and on Newsmax TV. She can be reached at: afuturefree@aol.com; or on Twitter: @AFutureFree