Remembering Sept 11th

Each year as many other American's do, I find myself thinking about what September 11th means to mean and reflect on the time immediately surrounding it.  While many people remember watching and listening to the endless footage, that was not my thoughts drift to first.  With U2 songs being played as a soundtrack (mainly "Stuck in a Moment" and "The Hands that built America"), still shots run through my head.  The image of sitting in a continuing education class and looking up in shock and the shock on my coworkers faces as we realized what we were told was happening.  The look in my great aunt's face (who was suffering greatly from dementia at that point, she rarely if ever even knew my name at that point) when I told her what was happening and turned on the TV to watch the coverage.  The flags hanging from each house as I went on my evening walks, and the quite there was because no planes were flying (at the time I lived less than a mile from an international airport, under a flight path).  A picture of a little girl on her dad's shoulders waving a flag.  Finding a parking garage that overlooked the plaza that was having a rally so my aunt could watch, and how happy she was when a very nice mother and daughter gave us their flags and candles.  And my gratefulness for them doing that small act of kindness, my aunt was so sad and was having trouble moving past the point that I had forgot ours in the process of getting her out (at 94, taking her on an outing required more planning and work than taking Pyrope and Obsidian).  I still have one of those flags.  They are no different than a thousand of other small United States flags I've got over my lifetime, but that one is different. I remember going to DC afterward and seeing the still damaged Pentagon being repaired.  I remember talking to my dad (when I was eventually able to get through to him) and him telling me that this event would shape the background of my generation.  I find myself thinking, yes and no.  Yes, in many ways it has defined and shaped my generation.  And no, in some ways I think this recent "financial crisis" is going to be the defining and shaping event of my generation.

Above all else, I think of the lives lost because of Sept 11th.  Directly that day, the innocents that were in the Towers, the Pentagon, and on the planes.  The heroes that died trying to save others.  Those that have lost their lives in the quest to find Osama Ben Laden.  The lives lost in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (yes, I'm aware that particularly the Iraq war is not directly linked to Sept 11th, but my personal opinion is that we would not have gone into Iraq if it had not been for Sept 11th, and since this is my blog, I can say this).  I think about the hate and intolerance of extremist groups.  Not just Muslim groups towards Americans or Christians, but Christian groups towards Muslim or Jews or atheists.  Whites towards blacks.  It saddens me to think of the waste of lives and energy this costs.  I will remember with sadness what happened.  And I fight against it in the best way I know how, teaching my children tolerance and about other beliefs.