9/11/11

It’s hard to believe it has been a decade since the September 11th tragedy. The whole thing has always been a little bit unreal for me, even watching videos and hearing first-hand accounts. Since the events on 9/11/01 many many things have happened, but everyone still remembers. It’s interesting to read and hear about where everyone was during the 9/11 attacks ten years ago: how they heard about it, where they were, who they lost. I remember exactly where I was. I was at home, getting ready to go to another typical day of middle school. I walked into the hallway with my backpack on, all set to walk out the door and to the bus stop down the street. I stopped in the doorway of the living room, where the television was on and my family was sitting and watching videos of the Twin Towers burning. I joined them, barely comprehending the magnitude of the tragedy, kneeling on the carpet with my backpack on.

The next few days were similarly surreal. At school we always watched a college-run news show called Channel One, and one day they did a story about Fremont and the large Afghan population there. It crossed my mind the story was about hate crimes directed at Middle Eastern-born Americans, but all I really thought was, “Hey! That’s where I grew up!” They filmed an interview by the fruit stand right outside our old apartment complex.

It took me years to fully understand the depth of the events that occurred on September 11th, 2001, and they are still just beyond my grasp. It wasn’t until I stood staring down into the rubble of Ground Zero and listening to a woman tell a story about her son, known only as “the man with the red bandanna,” a volunteer fireman who saved lives before losing his own, that I felt the chasm of sorrow associated with that day. It wasn’t until I stood looking at the countless memorials on display in the St. Paul chapel that I truly understood how many people lost their lives, how many people were deeply and personally affected by the catastrophe. Living in relative safety on the other side of the country, I never knew what it meant to have the World Trade Center fall.

Sometimes I think in terms of before and after. I see a movie set in New York and there are the Twin Towers, blazing in the sunlight, and I think, “This was before 9/11.” I read a book about Middle Easterners getting held up at the airport and I think, “This is because of 9/11.” National security before and after. The wars in the Middle East before and after. Friendships before and after. Families before and after. I didn’t personally know anyone who lost her life or even who lost someone dear to them, and my life didn’t really change before to after. But every year I hold a silent personal vigil: in the dedicated moment of silence at the Embassy, in a white flower with whispered well-wishings dropped into the river, in communion with the full moon.

As magnificent as the scope of tragedy that day held and in the years of aftermath, I can only believe in the goodness and resistance of the human soul. I am amazed at the tributes of art, music, novels, architecture, and film dedicated to those who lost their lives. People will find hope and strength and rise above wretchedness. They will stand together, bound by links that withstand time and tribulation. As my mother taught me, all people are inherently good, and I will believe till the day I die that when the day ends, people will do the right thing. People will come together and help each other. People will lift each other’s heads and hands and help each other live. People will find quiet strength in the community of the human spirit. People don’t wish harm on others. Even in the wake of tragedy, even in the crisis of financial ruin, even on the brink of destruction, people just want to live. Even in the supposed triumph of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, it’s still just another death. All we want is a quiet place to be still and listen and learn and love. We must and will rise above death and sorrow to create a stronger, more beautiful world. A world that has the resilience and trust that has been shown by countless individuals in the past ten years.

In the clear morning air
Smoke and dust and human souls
Rose above the shining Towers into the sky
Pillars of strength and internationalism
Brought down by impact
Metal on metal

Years later
Foundations rise
Hands build
Differences unite
Hope where once lay terror
And tears

In the wake of tragedy
A new light
Strength from sorrow
Faith through fear
Courage from calamity
A reviving city
Not a broken one

O brave new world, that has such people in it