I spent most of the day yesterday (9-11-06) in pursuit of things unrelated to the fifth anniversary of the most horrifying terrorist attack in the nation’s history. I tried to treat it like most any other day, preparing clothes and such for another week driving across the country, getting ready to attend a Gospel Meeting at Benton Harbor Church of Christ (with Bro. Tom House). Brother Steve Baisden brought the meeting to my attention, and invited me to dinner with his family before we left on the two hour drive to get there on time. I had to be properly groomed and dressed for the occasion, so most of the afternoon was spent in anticipation of this delightful time spent with brothers and sisters in Christ, worshiping the true God of Heaven together. Indeed, the time was more than worth the two hours both ways, but in all of this, I spent no time watching TV or any of the special dedications, speaches, or memorials for the people and events of 9-11.
By the time I arrived home last night, it was nearing midnight. I almost felt a little guilty. I flipped on the tube, and turned to my favorite news outlet to see if there would be any repeats. I cought the last few minutes of a show. It was then that I realized that I knew in advance how those images and discussions would impact me, and that this is probably why I tried to avoid it for the majority of the day. I knew it would all but incapacitate me. Within moments of the minute by minute coverage on that day, tears were streaming down my face. Hearing the cry of people on the street that day caused my chest to convulse and heave. I managed to keep from an outright bawl, but it was not easy.
The show ended and I changed to the channel, not looking for anything in particular, but ran across The Late, Late Show with Creig Ferguson, one of my favorite late evening distractions. Rather than a great deal of levety, however, Creig was maintaining a somber atmosphere, interviewing people who were there at the Twin Towers that day. Hearing their voices crack and tremble while re-telling their stories was enough to keep me choked up through to the end. At the end, Creig thanked the audiance for allowing him to take the rout he did with that evening’s show. He mentioned the fact that he did not want to talk about those things, and that was a clear indication that he needed to do so. These were my feelings exactly.
I changed the channel again, now willing myself to seek out a further outlet for the expression of grief. TLC was airing a ’special’ on 9-11. I watched. I wept.
It is not “too soon” to memorialize anything regarding that day. I think the country needs to remember that day. The country needs to remember not only the sadness and horror, but also the outrage and the sense of one-ness that that day brought. For a very short time, there was no more Demacrats and no more Republicans, no more rich or poor, black or white, no more hyphenated Americans with another nationality attached. We were all one people under Old Glory, the angry elder brother whose younger subling had just been beaten up by the playground bully.
A few weeks after September 11, 2001, the movie “Spiderman” came to theaters, and toward the end, I could not help but notice a very subtle insertion of a patriotic theme. Spidy was battling his enemy in the skies over New York while a cround of New Yorkers looked on and some found themselves theatened by the bad-guy. Just as the bad guy was about to attain a victory, he was pummeled by sticks and bottles from the crowd looking on from a bridge. A rather large burly man with a hardhat and flannel shook his fist a screamed, “We’re New Yorkers! If you hit one of us, you hit all of us!” When the movie was over the closing image was that of Spidy perched on a flagpole with a proudly huge, flowing American flag. A lump comes into my throat just remembering that alone.
Not nearly long enough after, partizen politics took over, the country became wildly divided again, and the status quo continued. This is yet another reason for mourning that day. We should not only mourn the loss of citizens, feel empathetic for those who went through it, or their families who lost loved ones, but we should also bemoan and lamment the hard-heartedness of a country whose leaders cannot allow a world changing event to change the way things are done in Washington. Of course, this only reflects the citizenry, which is even sadder yet.
Maybe it is hard to remember the events of that day, but change is always hard, and things still need to change.
-R.
Posted by sklaft 