The Day the World Stopped Turning

This Sunday was the ten year anniversary of September 11^th.  The date has a way of making people think a little more than normal.  Yesterday I began thinking about all that we take for granted, all that has faded since that day and what has taken the place of the passion and determination Americans portrayed during the months following the attacks. 

I know where I was on September 11^th, 2001.  I was in high school, on my way to math class where my classmates and I watched the towers burning on TV.  I didn’t know the gravity of the situation at the time, but I knew it was bad.  Very bad.  It was the week before my 16^th birthday and my parents were in Tennessee for business.  My mother had promised me she’d be back by my birthday, something which seemed very important at the time, but on September 11^th, I was just grateful that my parents were not on a plane that day.  I just was just grateful for them.  Days before, my mother had decided to send me balloons while she was gone, just to let me know she was thinking of me.  They arrived at school on September 11^th, 2001 with a note that could not have been more perfect at the time.

I went home early that day, I didn’t feel well.  I spent the night with my grandparents and remember my grandpa being glued to the TV.  My aunt called to see how I was doing with the news.  I was beginning to understand the gravity of the situation a little more.  The more I learned, the more I was confused.  It didn’t make sense, all of the violence, all of the destruction.

I think the attacks on September 11^th is for my generation what Pearl Harbor was for my grandparent’s generation.  It’s a reminder that world peace has not been reached and discrimination, violence, and inhumanity exist, even in our own little worlds, which really aren’t so little.  It’s also a reminder to choose our words more carefully, tell those that we love that they are loved, and spend a little more time being silly and a little less being practical.  And above all, this date, this horrible event, is a reminder of what we can be as Americans. 

The days and months after the attack Americans flew their flags high, covered their cars with support for the troops, rallied together, and were simply proud to be American.  Yesterday as we drove along the freeway I saw plenty of American flags.  It saddened me as I noticed that less than half of these flags were at half-mast.  What has happened to our pride, our spirit, our determination?  Now September 11^th is used as an excuse to treat others as less than us because they resemble the image that has been branded as a terrorist.  We’ve given up freedoms to stay “safe”, all because we are told this is what needs to be done.  We have forgotten the sense of community that is so vital to surviving as a nation.

It’s sad the things that are forgotten in everyday life.  As the year goes on, we all go back to our lives.  However, there are those – the businessmen and women who were in the towers or the pentagon or a plane who didn’t make it home for dinner that night, the families and friends who lost one or many they love, the  soldiers who left their families to fight and didn’t return, or those that did but missed the birth of their child or time with their families – these people don’t forget.

So today I remember those that have lost so much, those that have given so much.  As daily life continues, I will get back to my life, but for awhile I will remember to be so very grateful for all that I have been blessed with, and for the fact that I am an American.