Being a proud American and military veteran, I felt that I
couldn’t let today pass without saying something. There are things about that day that stick in my mind.
- I remember my friend Jeff calling to wake me up to tell me what happened. I didn’t take him seriously because he’d done this before with reports that “the government is admitting UFOs are real” or some other conspiracy theory that he’s apt to want to bring my attention to. But this call was different, I could tell by his voice having known him all of my life.
- I remember the hardest phone call I ever had to make, to my friend Lauren a New York native living in Los Angeles at the time. Her scream will forever be burned in my mind as she watched her home in flames.
- I remember being stuck at home from work because my engine had died the day before and thusly I got deeply immersed in all of the news coverage so I became more knowledgeable and thusly more emotionally affected by it all
- I remember going online to AOL at the time, to find out about my friends in the area to check and see how they were.
- I remember wanting to write something but the words were just not there. For one of the few times in my life, I was silent.
Then I remember the aftereffects in the days, weeks and
months following
- At the time I was knee deep in my freelance film critiquing and yet I had no desire to see a movie. It just seemed to give me a greater sense of priority and movies were not one of them
- I remember going to work, for a major credit card company, and the accommodations that we made for the affected citizens. Namely, whatever they wanted, we did for them. And I did so proudly
- I remember my first trip to New York City two months afterwards and seeing a city still stunned, shocked and saddened. I remember the memorial next door at Grand Central Station. I remember the abundance of NYPD and FDNY apparel of which I proudly sported. I remember seeing the smoke during a boat ride around the Statue of Liberty; a contrast of freedom and tragedy. And I remember not wanting to go to ground zero because while I would like to pay my respects, I would be upset if there were profiteers trying to make money off of it in the wrong way and I may get arrested if I come across the wrong person saying the wrong thing.
September 11th was, in my memory, the darkest day
in US history. The lives that were lost, the security that was compromised and
the sense of fear amongst as a nation will, hopefully, never be forgotten. What
happened afterwards was nothing short of inspiring. People were proud to be
Americans again. People put their differences aside and showed why we are the
UNITED States of America and while it is sad that it took such an event to do that,
I am glad that we the people reacted that way. Yes, we should have been angry.
Yes we should have wanted revenge and yes, in my opinion, we should have
retaliated and please save your comments on the ongoing wars there as I agree
that it may have gone a bit too far but that’s not the point. But the key in
the beginning was to come together and that’s what we did.
Twelve years later, I think it’s a day to put our political
differences aside on this. Infighting and such, going past healthy and productive
debate, is not necessary on a day like today. Today is a day that polarized us
as a nation, at least from my perspective and so I ask, please, that for today
we remember that we are not Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives,
Independents, Libertarians and the like. Today, we are Americans and it should
be United We Stand.
Thank you and God Bless America.
