On Sept. 11, 2009, I'm afraid we have forgotten
-By Mike Moore-
The pictures were back on the screen, the emotions back on display. One day, every year, we’re reminded of what happened on that fateful Tuesday morning. One day every year we allow those images to reignite the fear, anger, shock, desperation and helplessness we were flooded with some eight years ago.
Eight years since our country came under attack. Eight years since a mode of transportation was turned into a weapon against our own people, eight years since we ultimately learned how much we were hated, and just how vulnerable we were.
Now they say you don’t know how good something is until you’ve lost it. On that Tuesday morning in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, we lost our sense of invincibility. We were stripped of that protectionism none of us had ever seen challenged before.
But what’s more is what we gained in those days, weeks and months following the attacks. Never before had a country been so politically united. Never before had strangers become friends in a heartbeat. Blood banks were overflowing with donations, volunteers risked their own health and safety for people they had and would never know, patriotism reigned supreme.
Bloodied and bruised we were, but united we stood.
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I had someone say to me that “after eight years, time heals, but in this case it shouldn’t dampen anger.” That is where my fear comes in. Newscasts and headlines all day danced with the idea of “never forgetting.”
I’m afraid we already have.
Put yourself back in that moment, the first time you turned on the news, the first time you saw a human being jumping from those towers. Put yourself in their shoes, a sudden death by concrete was more desirable than the flames quickly climbing their way. Try and remember your emotions as you placed yourself on those planes, witnessing the murder of flight attendants, battling the panic and fear of what was happening next, only to look out the window and see the New York city skyline getting closer by the second, your death, now inevitable, starring you right in the face.
Think back to when you were the fireman, weighed down by dozens of pounds of equipment, hysterical people running in the opposite direction while you trudged upward, one floor after another, a blind ambition of duty and sacrifice carrying you into a building just moments from collapsing.
Now remember when that phone rang, and it was your son, daughter, wife or husband, fear trembling from their voice as they explained the horror that was happening on the plane they were seated. Think back to those words they used about men with bombs, the ignorance they had about what had already happened, and the fate in your heart of hearts you knew they were in for.
Look ahead to the future you now have, a child without a parent, a husband without a wife, a mother without a son. Recall that entire day, that entire night, the shock you woke up to, the despair you went to bed with and anxiety that controlled you every moment. It was hell on earth, a day never to forget, a lesson never to ignore. Things would never be the same. The life we had lived to that moment would be altered forever.
Put yourself in any one of those positions, on that day, Sept. 11, 2001, and envision the world we now find ourselves in on Sept. 11, 2009.
The divisiveness the country finds itself in across political lines, the simple way people treat one another or the fact that patriotism has slowly become something to be fearful of. Look out your window and count the American flags on your street, a handful would be a blessing. United we stood, and in God we trusted. Now, it’s each man for himself, and don’t even think of saying “Merry Christmas.”
The term “terrorist attack” has been replaced with “man-caused disaster.” The very people behind and in ways responsible for that day are having their prison closed, and are receiving trails, representation from lawyers and sympathy from American people. An administration, as far left as we have ever known, seeks to investigate, prosecute and punish the very people who prevented more of these attacks because they used “scare tactics” to do so.
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We now have a president who travels the world, apologizing for American’s actions, bowing before foreign leaders, accepting gifts from communist dictators while listening to speakers call American’s terrorists. All the while he’s ordering FBI operatives to read detained terrorists, captured on the field of battle, their Miranda Rights.
We have a speaker of the house referring to everyday citizens as “Nazi’s” because of their use of freedom of speech. We have congressmen comparing moms and dads, grandparents and neighbors to the Ku Klux Klan because of their opposition to a government takeover of health care. We have Czars, government owned auto companies, government seized banks and debt in the trillions to countries who don’t particularly fancy us.
A child-molesting pop star is granted weeks of coverage after dying, while soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are pushed to the back page. That same president who handed out $740 billion in tax-payer dollars, wants to cut military spending, tax anyone with a paycheck, all the while promising a bigger, better and brighter future, without the slightest clue as to how to fund it.
There was an America I saw in September of 2001, a country envied by all, and fearful of none. I’m afraid in eight short years, those memories and that anger, while not gone, have been seriously dampened, by our policies, our leaders and our leader. There’s a song, written not long after 9-11 by country star Darryl Worley that simply begs the question, “Have you forgotten, how it felt that day?”
I’m afraid to admit we have.
They say you don’t know how good something is until you’ve lost it. Some eight years ago I knew a country that backed down from nothing, defended its people in the face of danger, no matter the way, no matter the cost, stood united in the cause of freedom and operated with a take-no-prisoners type attitude.
I now know how good that was.
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Mike Moore can be reached at mjm12@albion.edu
