Remebering 9/11 15 years later

 


Sep 11, 2016 9:35pm




Soapbox alert and rambling post warning.
This was a hard day, harder than I expected. I got up and walked into a replay of 9/11 coverage on the news. I know what the towers looked like but still felt panic initially until I saw President Bush talking instead of President Obama. I didn't expect to react that way. I didn't expect to cry in my husband's arms after 15 years. It's strange what trauma does to us, how violated we can feel even when the physical blow lands on another. Memories are tricky things. They can be treasure or torment.
It makes me sad that one day we won't remember. We say we will. We have every intention to, but eventually as a nation, we won't, at least not with emotion. It will be a fact, not a feeling. It's normal for memories to fade and become less intense, but it is still painful to think it will happen. It's like a broken promise.
Someday, if the world keeps spinning that long and America keeps chugging on, 9/11 will be a paragraph in a history book or a question on a chapter test. Don't think so? Think WW1, WW2, Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma City or go global. Memorials stand but memories fade.
We trivialize, politicize, and spin. We compare numbers and place blame but the truth is whatever happened before, whatever actions, right or wrong, that occurred after; these people were just living their lives. They got up, started their day, and expected to finish it. They didn't and they deserve to be remembered.
They weren't numbers, they were people. They had no say in their assault and could give no opinion on the response after it. Give them their day, free of politics, free of spin. Just remember and as long as you remember; help those around you do the same.