This month marks the 23rd anniversary of 9-11. That seems hard to believe. Maybe it’s because the events of that day are so etched in our brain that it doesn’t seem like it happened 23 years ago.
9-11 became one of those events where you will always remember where you were when you got the news and how we were glued to the TV for days and weeks afterwards. Events like 9-11, even though we will never forget it, seems to be like all the other big catastrophic events. We don’t forget them, but they fade from the headlines, and we do tend to forget the small details. Maybe that’s a good thing, I don’t know.
One of the things I will clearly always remember however, is how the country came together. We operated as one, with our hearts and eyes collectively turned toward New York and wanting to be able to do SOMETHING….anything. The thought that this could happen in the United States was, frankly, unfathomable. The First Responders began to feel like familiar friends; we saw their faces every day on the news, we felt their pain. We came together to grieve, to donate, to volunteer, to share and to collectively voice our outrage.
Of course no one wants another 9-11, or anything resembling that dark day. However, I wonder…is it going to take something like this to jar us out of the hopelessly divided place that we are in as a country? Have we forgotten how proud we were to say we were Americans as one united front? Since 9-11, we have been through a lot as a country. There have been wars, political unrest and division, a Pandemic, mass shootings, market crashes and a Presidential assassination attempt, just to name a few. Someone once said, “It’s not the event, it’s how you react to the event.” I suppose that’s true – dark times can shape and define character and resilience.
The upcoming election is going to leave many people disappointed and disillusioned, regardless of the outcome. Those feelings are normal. But can we remember, how for one fleeting moment, how good it felt to be universally connected? Together. United and unified. Bipartisan. American. As we remember 9-11 during this anniversary month, don’t forget that feeling.
