Every few years, the publication date of the newspaper falls on September 11, as it does this year. Seeing September 11 printed on the dateline always brings back memories of the desperate day nine years ago when the nation watched in horror as planes crashed into solid walls of glass and steel and killed thousands of our fellow Americans.
I don’t have to go back to the newspaper archives to see the column I wrote the week after September 11, 2001 to remember the fear and sadness of that day. I can close my eyes and clearly see the attack again. I can feel the knot in my stomach as the second plane crashed and the realization hit that this was a deliberate act.
It still bothers me that the New York sky was a bright, cloudless, blue as this incredible act of hatred took place. It doesn’t seem right that thousands of people could die under a sunny September sky. It is still hard to believe that it really happened.
It is hard to believe that nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day. Children and grandparents died on planes that became weapons. Young men and women, hurrying to work were killed in the prime of their lives. Firefighters and police officers gave their lives, doing their job, trying to save others.
When I think about all those people—ranging in age from two-years-old to 70; bankers and shopkeepers, flight attendants and firemen; from New York and New Jersey and Maryland and Pennsylvania and all over the world—I am nearly overwhelmed.
So truthfully, I try not to think about it. We are lucky to live here on the North Shore, surrounded by peaceful forests and calming waters, far from Ground Zero and the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania where United Airways Flight 93 crashed. We don’t have to drive by remnants of the devastation and few of us know someone who perished that day. We go about our ordinary lives for weeks, months, perhaps years, without really thinking about 9/11.
But those who lost husbands and wives, sons and daughters, friends and lovers will never be able to forget, not even for a moment. Their normal, ordinary lives were shattered nine years ago on September 11, 2001.
We should try to honor their loss every day, not just on the anniversary of 9/11. We should honor the memory of those who died and the courage of those who struggle to carry on by being good citizens—by voting and volunteering and by being there for our families.
That is the most meaningful 9/11 memorial we could offer.
There is no explaining what has
been removed from my life and
the lives of my family as a result
of the loss of my brother…He
will live on in me and I will try
to be as good a brother, son,
husband and father as he was to
his family.
Brother of a 42-year-old
electrician who died in
the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001, source:
CNN.com
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