09/11/2013 09:57
I usually go for funny and light-hearted posts on my blog, but September 11th is such a reverent and solemn day in our nation’s history, I wanted to do something different.
I can’t believe it’s been twelve years since the attack. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was driving to work and heard that someone had crashed a plane into one of the twin towers. I remember thinking to myself, “What idiot would have crashed a plane in the middle of New York City?” I mean, things like that just don’t happen. When you hear about plane crashes, they’re very rarely in the middle of a town, mere miles from an airport. Pilots take great care in trying to set a crashing plane down in an unpopulated area that would suffer the least amount of damage.
People were discussing the crash when I got to work, but no one was using the word “terrorism”. It all just seemed like a crazy accident until the second plane hit the second tower. Then everything changed. Irreparably. This wasn’t an accident—this was a deliberate attack, and the worst part was that we didn’t know who the attacker was or why our nation was being targeted. One of my co-workers went home to get a TV so that we could watch the story unfold. We all sat riveted to the TV (no work was going to get done that day) with sinking hearts and teary eyes as we watched our fellow Americans literally run for their lives.
I can’t even imagine what it was like to have been a first responder. So many of them gave their lives trying to save others. Others were scarred physically and emotionally. But they did more than just save lives. They gave the rest of us something to believe in—that not all Americans were superficial, self-centered, and lazy like the rest of the world thought. They became our new heroes, and as such they inspired the rest of us to get out there and make a difference in any way we could.
I’ve never seen such American pride in my lifetime as we experienced after 9/11. We all banded together, and for once everyone was on the same side and supported the government. It was a scary time, but we were strong because we felt like we had each other. But as with anything, that patriotic feeling waned, and unfortunately we’ve fallen back into bickering with our fellow Americans, completely forgetting how we leaned on each other only a decade ago. In honor of this day, it is my wish that we put our differences aside and just be Americans, standing side by side to remember those who lost their lives and gave their lives on September 11, 2011.
