We Remember

I promise promise that after this I'll step down from the soapbox and get back to posting pretty paradise pictures (ahh, alliteration). I haven't ever jumped on the "write something about 9/11 in a public forum" bandwagon, so I'm just gonna go ahead and do it today.





I couldn't have been any further from danger on September 11, 2001. I was in a tiny town in Eastern North Carolina, driving to class, when I got the first of many phone calls. It took a while for the news to filter down our way, and it wasn't until we were let out of class (early, because there were so many rumors and nobody could concentrate) and we wandered into a common TV room that we realized what exactly was happening. Going back and forth between the TV and the view out the window was just surreal. Total terror and destruction...sleepy little peaceful coastal town...smoke and fire...gentle sea breezes...people dying...a pod of dolphins swimming...it was really weird.

I'd never been to New York, I'd never seen the Pentagon. It was truly hard to comprehend. In the years since, I've begun to get a sense of the scale of what happened that day - the number of lives lost, the size of the heart of the city that was ripped away, the incredible bravery of those who tried to help...I still can't always put it into words.

I've since been to New York. Actually I was there about six months later. I went to Ground Zero and read the "Missing Person" posters and notes that were left for the victims. I spent some time at a firehouse and touched one of the fire engines that had been buried in rubble that day - restored perfectly, but with dings consciously left in the metal body. I've since lived in DC. I've been to the Pentagon Memorial, with the eerie glow cast by the lights under the benches. I've helped take down an exhibit in which there was one American flag for every person who died that day (and holy cow, you want to get emotional, take down these thousands of flags and realize, as you fold each one, that each of these flags is a PERSON - one who died too soon, one with a family who misses them, one from a community that will never be the same). I've worked within blocks of the White House and had a constant state of hyper-awareness become my new normal.

Since that day, like everyone else, I've heard so many stories. It strikes me that everyone - no matter where they lived, whether or not they knew anyone in New York, DC, Pennsylvania, or on one of the airplanes - everyone was affected. In the days after September 11, our country drew together in a way I'd never had the privilege of seeing. We were all Americans, first and foremost, drawn together by a horrible wrong that had been done to us.

I'm writing this not because I want to show people how affected I have been by what happened to our country that day, but because I'm afraid people will forget. I'm afraid that people will become complacent. I'm afraid that people will think that all the danger has passed. I know that our cars and smartphones and jobs and families and dogs and TiVos and workouts and shopping trips and vacations and hobbies consume our lives - I'm no better than anyone else in that department. All I'm asking is that you remember.

Remember that the men and women of the police and fire departments in all of our hometowns put their lives on the line every.single.day. to keep us safe. Remember that the men and women of our armed forces voluntarily sign up for a life of sacrifice - and sometimes pay the ultimate sacrifice - to protect us and our right to speak our minds. Remember that the families of all these folks have to give up lots of the normal family things you and I take for granted, yet their support and pride for their family members never wavers.

The very least we can do for these brave men and women and their families is to remember.

Maybe say a prayer or send a positive vibe or think happy thoughts or whatever your way of putting positivity into the universe works. It doesn't matter who you vote for, who/what you worship, what you wear, or what football team you love - we're all Americans. It's a shame that the ephemeral sense of unity we all felt nine years ago has all but disappeared, only to be dusted off like a Christmas tree and brought out on one day a year. Commit a random act of kindness in, like, February. Or because it's a Tuesday. Or because you're wearing blue today. Let's make this country one we can all have a sense of unity in - and not because of the negative actions of others - but because we are proud of each other. Because we're proud to be American.