Thoughts on 9/11

I was up late last night, writing. This morning when I woke up I deleted the post before it was published. I didn’t feel I did justice to the victims of that vile attack on our country. I didn’t feel I did justice to the American heroes of that day, and the days that ensued.

I watched videos, slide shows and news. I read articles and listened to the radio. I fought back tears. I went to work and did my best to get something done. But I’m numb, and distracted. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

On 9/11/01 I was on vacation at the Jersey Shore with friends - we rented a beach house with two other families. We all had infants, and the two other families also had toddlers. We were talking and joking while the TV was on, the toddlers were at the counter eating breakfast. I was playing with my three month old. My husband and one of the other men were playing golf.

Suddenly the carefree feeling of vacation gave way to horror as an atrocity was aired live on television. When the second plane hit the World Trade Center my friend and I looked at each other and one of us said “Osama bin Laden.” Somehow we knew. And we also knew that the feeling of security we grew up with was lost. 

Today the horror has passed. But there’s this feeling – sadness, anger at the radical haters, and a feeling of numbness. That feeling that in an instant everything can change. And eight years later, I wonder if people still remember – really remember – how they felt that day. Have the lessons we learned been forgotten?

I asked my eight year old this morning what he knew about 9/11. He didn’t know what I was talking about. I told him today is the anniversary of a terrorist attack, and if he knew about the planes hitting the World Trade Center. He said he knew about planes hitting the Twin Towers. I’m not sure what age is appropriate to tell him more. I saved the newspapers from that week – before history was re-written – the week America was united.

Now we’re as polarized as ever. In the fall of 2001 the media investigated those intent on destroying us from without. Today the media is intent on allowing us to be destroyed from within. Thanks to politicians willing to promise anything in order to gain power, a media who allows it to happen and an ideology I will never quite understand, a large portion of our population holds the belief that they are entitled to the services and earnings of their fellow citizens.

On 9/11/01 we saw the absolute goodness of the American people. We saw Americans do amazing things for their fellow citizens, not because they were forced to do so by the government, but because it was the right and honorable thing to do. In the months that followed we witnessed the generosity of the American people, opening their wallets to give to the victims even in a time of financial turmoil. That’s what we do. We’re Americans.

I’m off to my son’s baseball game. I’ll cheer for him and his team. At the same time I will remember what happened eight years ago. I will remember all the men and women who have fought, and continue to fight  for us in foreign lands.