Sunday, September 11, 2011

Do You Remember?

"You once told me, our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch. Is that true for everybody, or is it just poetic bullshit?"
- Tyler, Remember Me


Hard to believe it's been 10 years already.  Tuesday, September 11, 2001 has now become Sunday, September 11, 2011.  American lives have returned to normal, unless you're traveling, in which case TSA governs all.  Though whenever New York City, the Pentagon, or open fields in Pennsylvania are brought up your mind seems to wonder back to that early September morning.

Growing up I would hear people recall where they were when Pearl Harbor was attacked, when Kennedy was assassinated, when Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated, what it was like to see the Challenger shuttle explode.  9/11 was one of those days for me.  I will always remember, just like everyone else, where I was, what I was doing, etc.

I remember that day as an overcast day in Live Oak and being with Mrs. Bonds (8th grade) class outside working on a science experiment (oddly enough we were working on recording speed and time for air propelled rockets).  When we walked inside one of the other teachers was in the room waiting to talk with Mrs. Bonds, who, after some brief words, silently walked across the room with tears in her eyes and turned on the television set.  Some of us, as we watched her, thought something had happened to her youngest child as she walked with the tears swelling, before we realized what was really happening miles away.  As we sat there in silence reading and watching the news unfold I realized George W. Bush was suppose to be in Florida on that day.  When it was revealed the Pentagon had been hit and they were most likely going after the President I became worried for my father who was working in Tallahassee at the capital...where Jeb Bush, the President's brother, was also working.  Luckily my mother worked at the Middle School and when I was allowed to go see her she had just talked with my father, who, like most people, was given the rest of the day off.

The rest of the day was spent watching the news unfold, news about all 4 flights that had been hijacked, news about the towers and surrounding buildings that were damaged, the estimated death/injury toll, and who was already traveling to help respond to the horrifying event.

It's funny to have watched 10th anniversary interviews of people who survived or lost loved ones on that day because they recall how beautiful a morning it was, the cool crisp autumn air, the sun rising in the sky.  But I remember the chill, overcast clouds of Live Oak.  It's like the Florida sky knew something terrible was going to happen, while the sky over where these events took place wanted those affected by it to remember it's beauty.

It still scares me that I know people who were suppose to be in the towers that day.  It scares me to think that I was in the towers just 3 years prior, that my grandparents had just flown out of New York City just days before.  This event changed the Nation, and the world.  It changed a societies way of thinking.  What is safe if an airplane can become a weapon so easily?

On this day, the 10th anniversary of the attacks, the Nation has been asked to come together and unite as one again.  We will always remember where we were, we will never forget.  We will have our  moments of silence, we will continue to pray for those who are still suffering from this loss.



Grand Avenue

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