9/11

A history teacher I had in high school said that there will be times when things happen and where you are and what you are doing will be permanently burned into your memory. I doubt there is an adult today who doesn't remember what they were doing when they heard about 9/11. I was six years old and had just started 1st grade.

I'm not sure how much of my memory is correct and how much has been added by my own brain, but I remember waking up for school and my mom doing my hair. This was a little odd, because usually my mom didn't get us up in the mornings. I have memories of being in the family room with the TV on while she put my hair in a ponytail and being very quiet. I went to school and I remember a very somber mood among all of the teachers. I think we may have listened to the radio at some point in the day as well.

I remember knowing something very serious had happened, but I didn't really understand the magnitude of what it was. Flash forward and I'm probably apart of the very youngest age group to remember that day, and now kids in K-12 school are reading about it in history books.

Today as I looked at slideshows of images from that terrifying time, I started to cry. I cried because the pictures are surreal and raw and captivating and so unbelievably human. And as everyone posts about remembering, I wholeheartedly agree and join the hashtags and the posts that all ring out with the same message: "never forget."

Never forget because this actually happened.

I saw post after post that touched me as so many felt compelled to make public tributes to that time and the people who both lived and died, however, there was one post that bothered me. It was this:

Really? Is that why we want to remember? We want to remember with bitterness and anger and aggression? To me, this misses the whole point. To me, that is letting the "bad guys" win. I don't think we should ever forget this. I think we should print it in the history books forever, but not to make us bitter and angry about things that we cannot change. I think we should remember because in the profound words of George Pataki, "On that terrible day, a nation became a neighborhood."

Good people died that day, we should remember them. Good people lived through that day, we should remember them. That day revealed the true colors of so many, and what we saw was bravery and goodness. The absolute worst and lowest of all humankind and the absolute best and most heroic were displayed on the very same day, even in the same hour.

Nineteen of the vilest, most confused, lowest life forms thought they succeeded when they hijacked four planes and sent them crashing into the twin towers, the pentagon, and--because of brave passengers--a field in Pennsylvania. They took some lives immediately and some were taken in the aftermath, but nineteen sick men cannot crush the American spirit. I don't care if you believe in American anymore or not, I don't care if you believe in God or not, what happened in the aftermath of 9/11 was nothing short of a miracle.

I will never cease to be amazed at the incredible resiliency and goodness of the human spirit when it is needed most. And on this day I propose that we do remember. Not to hate. But to remember those who died without a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones, those brave first responders who died answering the call of duty, and the families and friends they left behind. To remember that while tragedy can be an occasion to come together with love and support, we can choose every day to live with the same purpose, compassion, bravery, and selflessness that so many chose on that day that changed us fourteen years ago.

Never forget.