I have a bunch of other blog posts scheduled. They'll be ready later in the week. Today however is a day for something else. Today is September 11th. It's been eleven years, over a third of my lifetime.
Yet events like that stay seared into your memory forever. It wasn't just watching the news, seeing the buildings fall, it was the aftermath. It was seeing the faces of every victim on TV, hearing their families, seeing the handmade posters and photos hung along the fence at ground zero. It was the days the rescue crews spent searching, digging, trying to find anyone left alive in the rubble. The horror of the final death toll.
That day was also about the heroism of ordinary people. The way Flight 11 was rerouted by the passengers. The Firemen who ran into the towers knowing the risk... and doing it anyway. The police and first responders, who were there when the buildings came down, and the men and women who braved the dust cloud to go in after survivors before anyone could even see. That day was about the sheer loss of life, but also about how willing we are to unify against bitter circumstances to help each other.
I was only 17 when the towers fell. I was home sick that day, and wound up watching the news til I was too stunned to watch anymore. Then we watched the rest of the week. Nothing else sticks in my mind about that day, or the days after, my life revolved around trying to keep in the loop, wondering if we'd known anyone involved, watching them go through the pieces. It didn't feel real at first. The first footage they showed of the plane crash, and then the towers collapse, none of it felt real. That such a thing could happen, deliberately happen, was beyond my imagining.
Now today, as I got her ready for school, I had to try to explain to my five year old daughter what Patriot Day means, and why we all need to remember it. I wasn't going to wait for the schools to tell her, wait for her to learn it in history class. It may have happened six years before she was born, but it was important in so many ways.
So I told her about everything that happened as gently as I could without death tolls. I told her firefighters and police rushed to help people, even though they were in a lot of danger. She asked a lot of questions, and I tried to answer honestly. I told her today is an important day to remember all the good people who died, and that we should always be grateful to police and firefighters for being willing to rush in when there's danger and help people.
I may have to find a suitable children's book to share with her. Through all of it, I want her to focus on the positive. Terrorists performed a horrible heinous act, but their goal was to cripple us, make us feel weak, and instead people pulled together to help and save each other. I know this act has spawned a lot of politics, and unfortunate amounts of racism and religious bigotry, which we'll discuss when she's older. Right now, we aren't going to talk about the terrorists, or their motives, they are the faceless evil that hurt innocent people. Do their reasons really matter?
The 'bad guys' are all dead or captured. While other terrorists remain, today isn't about them. Today isn't about revenge. It's about mourning, remembrance, and knowledge that every day in our lives is precious, and should be grateful for it. For all that was lost, we remember. We will not forget.
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