September 12, 2002
I know it's late. I know it's already the 12th in most of the world. But I only have one chance to say this and I want to get it right.
I remember where I was when the news broke. I was at my desk with the TV right beside it, chatting away in #afsm. It seemed that morning that more people than normal were on #afsm... maybe we all knew something. When the first plane hit, we all made jokes that were in bad taste. Gallows humor. Of course at the time, it was just an accident, not a blow against our way of life.
We sat there, watched the second plane hit.
We sat there, watched the people in the streets.
We sat there, watched.
And then we didn't watch anymore.
I couldn't take anymore of September 11th. I couldn't stand 9/11, The Day America Stood Still, the WTC Tragedy, The Attack On America, The Terrorist Attacks... and all the other things that CNN, FOXnews, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC tried to cram down my throat with clever graphics and live up-to-the-minute coverage.
My local Cable Company added NY1 to our station lineup so we could have yet another channel to watch.
For the past year, America has lived under a shadow. We're a little stronger, a litttle harder willed, hopefully a little smarter. But we really haven't changed. When one person you loved dies, you eventually move on. You don't forget them. You don't stop loving them. You don't stop wishing they were still here.
It's no different when it's 3000 people.
I started thinking, or worrying if you will, that perhaps one day not long from now, September 11th will become a holiday like Memorial Day.
10 years from now, I don't want to be wished a "Happy 9/11" by a cashier who was 6 when it happened.
It's taken from Snarkcake but it seems so fitting:
"But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.... It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."
- Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
I might never have met you. I might never meet you. But I'm still glad you're here.
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Posted by aristan at September 12, 2002 06:08 AM