Remembering September 11
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj-GkDJpr2Y]
I've been wanting to write a poem to mark the 6th anniversary of September 11 but I wasn't able to finish it in time to post it today. I couldn't get it to sound the way I wanted it to... to say everything... and then today I came across this video and I think I understand why. I remember 9/11 as such a visual moment; the images are burned into my mind and I don't think words can capture the tragedy of that day the way images can. This video is one of the most moving memorials I've seen... I pass it on, in the hope that you will too.
It seems incredible that it's been 6 years. I still remember it so clearly. I'd just come out of the shower and the TV was on; it was the first time I can remember our stations crossing live to join a US network's coverage. I remember seeing the smoke... and a minute later saw the second plane crash into the South Tower. It felt surreal, like I was watching it happen but was somewhere else. When the towers collapsed I remember trying to speak, to shout... but couldn't. It was the first time I'd cried in a long time.
You often hear about moments that changed the world and in many ways it's something of a misnomer. No one moment really changes the world because there's much more which goes into making it; it's our reaction that gives a "moment" its power. And yet 9/11 is really an example where it's true. On a beautiful day, concrete buildings were brought crashing to the ground and a country was brought to its knees. And thousands of families experienced a hurt that will never go away.
I remember being angry, but with time's passing it's more a sadness now. One thing I remember clearly is the next day, September 12, my mother coming back from the doctor and telling me about a conversation she had overhead in the waiting room. 6 people had been talking about the attacks and saying how America had brought them on itself. I still don't understand that. 3,000 innocents died that day, people who woke up that morning not knowing they would never see another day. Disagree with foreign policy, but please don't diminish their memory.
I'll be lighting a candle tonight in memory and I offer my thoughts to every American, one friend to another. May we never forget. And to everyone who lost someone that day, and to everyone that survived, I hope you find peace.