September 11th is still so close to us that we remember what we were doing that day, who we were with and what we were thinking. Every year we relieve that litany of feelings and events.
Twenty five years ago I was watching children play on the playground. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Then another teacher came over and said, "did you hear?" - - Time Will Dim, Village Green/Town²
I woke up this morning and realized that the students I was with on the playground that day are thirty years old now.
Wow.
In my mind they have never aged.
When I was thirty I was newly divorced with a three year old child and beginning my teaching career. I wonder what my former students are doing? Who have they become?
What impact did that day - - and all that followed - - have on their lives?
*****
I don’t ever want to pretend I can speak from anyone else’s perspective than my own. I can’t possibly fathom the horror of that day twenty-five years ago for those who were closest to it.
I wasn’t close. I was barely even adjacent. But I will tell you what I have grown to understand about myself. The greatest terror I have experienced in my life was not on that day or because of that event. It has happened more recently when I discovered that the people bound and determined to cause fear and suffering in America were other Americans.
Not foreigners from somewhere far away who spoke unfamiliar languages and practiced unfamiliar religions, but people who waved American flags and proclaimed that a white Protestant Jesus is on their side.*
How do you prevail in a war on that terror?
Nothing in my life had prepared me for learning this: that any shred of democracy that my country had ever managed to embody had existed purely on an honor system. And that honor system had rotted, weakened, and - - let’s face it- - was never as strong as my misplaced idealism.
September 11th was a horrible, horrible day and I honor the memories of those lost and my heart goes out to everyone who carries that trauma within them. Please don’t misunderstand my sentiment today.
Twenty five years ago my immediate responsibility was to protect a class of kindergarten children. Today they are adults. I can’t help but feel that the reality of September 11th, 2026 is far scarier than September 11, 2001. What kind of a world did they inherit?
Have we given them anything to believe in, to cling to, to stand up for? Do they even know what has been lost?
* “We have met the enemy and he is us.” - - Walt Kelly, and certainly not about this topic but: still true.
Comments
Post a Comment