9/11 World

With the solemn anniversary of 9/11 approaching, I was scratching my head on what to say about something that really does not need to be stated. We all remember where we were. It will forever be seared in our brains. You remember who was around you, what room the news came to you in. You also will remember it was a fine weather day---- both here and out East where the horror happened. And, you will never forget your feelings. It came in this order: Shock......Disbelief........Anger.........And, mostly, Grief........ How could you not feel otherwise? You are human, and, we decent human beings feel the pain and sadness of fellow decent people. In your mind's eye, you planted yourself in those final moments of the victims. How you thought you would react, the actions you would take. Of course, I will never know this for sure, but, I'm thinking, in those final moments for those people, they were walking in the same numbness we had. But, theirs was a much more horrible numbness. The numbness of impending doom about to descend on them....... I also like to think the numbness they felt gave them some kind of peace amongst the madness happening around them. Of course, fear was a constant, unwelcome companion that day. That would never cease. But, let us hope, if they didn't die fast, that the fear was not the dominant emotion. Let us hope that they experienced a graceful love of the life they lived. And, a sense that they were about to go home to God......... Those images haunt us all. The planes going into the towers. The massive explosion of fire and the endless parade of smoke. And, the realization that people were dying in front of our eyes. The planes passengers were gone quickly, as were the initial victims that felt the impact of those planes. But, we also saw the remnants of this holocaust. We knew that there were people trapped in the buildings and that they were doomed to die. Along with this realization came the nervous system jarring feeling that those people in the buildings also KNEW that they were going to die. Imagine, the terror. Imagine, the chaos. And, imagine, that they were, hopefully, in that tranquil state I talked about above.......... In Washington, D.C., the terror continued. A plane flew right into the Pentagon, our center for all things defensive, and exploded. That is when we knew that we were being attacked by an unseen enemy. We thought so after the New York attacks but this sunk it in. We were at War. With whom, that would soon come........ And, over Pennsylvania, there was a struggle raging on a plane.  Flight 93 was up in arms over whom was going to win, the cowards who were hijacking it, or, the heroes who were fighting back. The heroes won the battle but lost their lives in the war......... This is all familiar territory I am covering. You know the facts and the story as well as me. You know the emotional toll it took on all of us. It is as if, a black cloud descended over us, never to depart. 9/11 is the dividing line between the Old World we used to live in and this New World. Certain times in history there are benchmarks that change the landscape of the world. Pearl Harbor was one, the Kennedy Assassination was another. 9/11 joins that group to form an Unholy Triumvirate. Never again will we be innocent. Never again will we look at the world the same way. You cannot look at what happened on 9/11 and not be changed. For the worse....... If there was one good thing that day---- and there wasn't, but I keep looking for that elusive silver lining---- it is that we showed that under the madness and horror, we can gather as a people and unite. Everyday life separates people---- by gender, race, religion, economic status. On 9/11, that was erased, if only for a small amount of time. Nothing else mattered to you than to know that your loved ones were safe. That was the universal feeling at that moment. To hug your loves. I remember in the days following the tragedy, there was a suspension of the usual public feelings, like what used to bother us about our fellow human beings was not important anymore in the wake of the disaster. People seemed a little gentler out there. An interesting thing I noticed was in the driving habits of the public. There was no competition to get somewhere fast, like normal days. No, there was an ease, if someone cut you off, so be it. That was not important anymore. I noticed in stores there was a quiet respect going on, a feeling that expressed itself in the soft way people talked. The day before we all hollered and wept our grief.  On 9/12, there was a passiveness and weary acceptance that it wasn't a bad dream after all, that humanity had suffered a jolt and we were staggering. Maybe, you were kinder that day to a stranger. Maybe, you were lost in your own thoughts. But, the overwhelming feeling was that a national tragedy had befallen us. It was time to heal the soul......... We have not recovered from that September day on 2001, nor will we ever. It is forever with us. I would like to say that the feelings in the days after the tragedy stayed, that we humans grew to become more tolerate of each other, more loving. Of course, that did not happen. We went back to our regular selves, content on just caring for our little world and the people we love. We just hoped that the outside world out there would leave us alone and let us live in peace. But, the world of craziness and madness never goes away. It seems to get closer to us, whether it is a car bombing in Beirut or a school shooting in this country. The outlaw nature of human beings seems to be getting stronger, the circle of madness tightening around us closer and closer...........