A Decade: Frozen & Forgotten

It's hard to believe it's been ten years since the September 11th attacks.  Hard to believe because it feels like so much longer, yet also as if we're forever frozen in those moments.

The smoke rising high above New York, the screams, the sirens, the jumpers, the anger, the sadness, the heroism...

In many ways we've forgotten so much of that day which is so etched into our collective consciousness--either selectively or by accident.  Not many politicians actually feel the weight of that day--and the death toll--as much as President Bush.  His reverence for the dead, heartfelt sympathy for their loved ones and acceptance of his responsibilities as commander in chief when it came to taking the war to them earned him respect, albeit brief respect.

So many people talk of those who died--and either through training or just by accident fail to refer to them as having been murdered by terrorists.  We also don't care to discuss how gleeful random people were in the Middle East who took to the streets to celebrate the attacks and all the bloodshed.

I still remember that touchy-feely story, "My Name is Osama" published a year after the attacks to try and quell blow-back against Muslims in America--a blow-back that never existed.  Jews are victims of hate crimes, ten times more than Muslims.  In the story encouraged for 9/11 lesson plans by the National Council for Social Studies, a character named Todd made fun of a boy named Osama.  Completely coincidentally, someone named Osama had ordered his co-conspirators to hijack a plane (United 93), but a brave group of passenger-heroes, including a Todd Beamer retook the plane, sealing their fates but saving countless lives.  I guess that was back when they thought kids knew Osama Bin Laden's name and all the other terrorists involved.  Now they know even less about history, even recent history.

As we move forward we must consider how much life has changed in America and throughout the world as a result of September 11th--and we must never, never, never forget what happened that day and those since.  The Islamo-facists still hate us and nothing we can do will change that.

We must be vigilant, awake, honest and never let the truth ride away on a plume of smoke like the ones that filled the empty skies on September 11th, 2001.

 

9/11 Project