To say that I struggle with what to say when September 11 comes around each year is an understatement, at best. Almost every American over the age of 18 can tell you down to the minute where they were when it happened and exactly what they did following those tragic events. Everyone in America seems to have an unmatched level of passion for the events surrounding 9/11. This is not inappropriate considering that, for most of us; this is the largest act of violence committed in America in our lifetimes.
I want to acknowledge the lives that were sacrificed on that day, whether they were civilians, military, airline personnel, workers in any of the buildings, or any of the countless police, fire and EMS workers that were lost. I want to acknowledge the work that was put in by both on and off duty police, fire, EMS, military of all branches, etc. on that day and for months after to assist, rescue, and fight for normalcy. Without that sacrifice and dedication to the job, we wouldn’t have been able to get to this point that we are at right now.
I don’t ever talk about any of my feelings about what happened on that day that would seem controversial because I recognize that is neither the time nor the place. I have respect for the lives lost, the families that have been forever changed, and the hard work and dedication of the people that were left, and I would never use this day to speak out of turn to cause the focus to be away from those individuals.
I would instead like to choose this entry to ask us to all ponder a simple question. We all remember what happened that day, now 12 years, but what are we doing about it? Are we simply remembering what happened but not allowing ourselves to make a change or are we attempting to live a change based upon what happened? Because of the strong presence of social media, the internet, and ability to communicate with the entire world with one mouse click, you will now see at least 100 references to “Remember 9/11” today alone. You might even post one yourself. But I would challenge us to grow as a society and realize that eventually we need to turn this statement into an “AND”. “Remember 9/11 and _____”. If we refuse to do that, then we are no better off than we were on September 12, 2001.
I am definitely not proposing any solutions or ideas with this. I would just like to use this time to think about what we should do and how we should fight to make our country better and stronger than it has been since we were all changed. Are you comfortable being complacent in your grief as an American public or should you channel those feelings and emotions regarding this day into making your own world a positively different environment to live in? I deliberately am not going to say that we should make it better because we did have a significant loss of life and the world is not better without certain people, but we can use their sacrifice and make the world a positively different place.
I am definitely not advocating for anything that sounds like revenge and that is not where I would like to entry to go. In an ideal world, we would take our tragedy, and use our memories and lessons that we learned to make our society different today than it was on that day in a positive manner. If we are not able to get to a point where we are willing and able to take the sacrifices of those who died that day and use them towards the greater good of our society, then I would argue that those people have died in vain. Yes, those who were lost would want to be remembered, but I believe that they would all want us to use this situation as a way to teach our children lessons about what happened. At this point, those lessons could be as simple as religious tolerance, equality for all humans, compassion for those less fortunate, or empathy for the poor in other countries.
Let me know how you are remembering today and how we were changed.
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