Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Tuesday once again....
Current mood: thoughtful
Category: Life
I still think about that fateful day in 2001. Like today, September 11th was on a Tuesday. Most people, like myself, went to work like it was any other Tuesday. We expected to have an ordinary day. And then came the news of the plane crashing into the WTC. I heard someone talking about it and brushed it off as an accident that wouldn't have much impact. Then I started hearing more talk about it and reading news flashes on the Internet. There was a TV in the convenience store in our office building and everyone was crowding around it, staring in shock as the 2nd tower was hit. Then, because the day wasn't ordinary anymore and there was a terrorist threat looming over the U.S., we were sent home for our own safety. I remember spending hours on the couch watching the events unfold on CNN. I remember thinking how I didn't want to do anything social that evening because it didn't matter when all these lives were irrevocably changed. Even though I didn't know anyone affected at the time, it was still sad and scary. It still made an impact on my life...on how I viewed things in general. I remember worrying about my friend being in Israel and then getting an e-mail from him making sure his family and friends in the Chicago area were okay. We weren't even hit, but it was still a global impact.
Even though it has been 6 years, people still commemorate the day the face of NYC, and the U.S., changed forever. I will always think about that day, no matter how many years it has been. I even tried my hardest not to deliver my child on 9/11 (and succeeded), as I did not want his birthday associated with this day. Had it been an ordinary day, as it should have been that Tuesday in 2001, it wouldn't have mattered as much in the present time. Or even if something in the future happens on my son's birthday, I would not associate things the same way. It's all about the history. It's just sad to think that we grew up in this country that felt "safe" and now my son (and all other children born after that fateful day) has to grow up in a country that isn't so safe. Tuesday, 9/11/01, has taught us that anything can happen at any time and even if we're not prepared, we should always tell the people we love how much we love them.
May our children be able to raise their children in a country that at least feels somewhat more safe. Maybe national security will be better by then. Who knows? Maybe the event will have happened so long ago that it will just be in history books, like the past wars have been. Ones that we just learn about but say that we're glad we weren't growing up during that time.
I still think about 9/11 a lot. Especially now that September is here and the 9th anniversary is coming up. Since it is on Shabbat this year, I won't be listening to the radio or watching TV shows that commemorate the event, if they still even do that. I think next year will be a big deal since it will be 10 years. In the meantime, it seems like people don't focus on 9/11 as much, save for that whole situation with the mosque and religious differences that I will not delve into personally.
I recently wrote a story about 9/11. It spawned from a "Fiction Friday" prompt. I was actually at dinner that evening and was thinking about how our kids will one day be asking about where we were when the planes hit the World Trade Center. My thoughts probably stemmed from a conversation about where people were when Kennedy was assassinated. Then I thought about the Challenger explosion which led me to think about 9/11. Anyway, check it out.
The other thing that gets me thinking about 9/11 is that the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is around now. I remember visiting my grandma on her birthday and watching the aftermath of Katrina on the news. I was also very much pregnant with my older son and worrying more that he'd be born on 9/11 than anything to do with Katrina. Maybe because Katrina was a natural disaster and 9/11 was a hateful act against the U.S. In any case, both situations were horrible, but I hope people take a moment of silence on September 11th this year to think about all that was lost and how much we've all changed because of it, whether or not we can admit that to ourselves.
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I remember seeing the TV that morning and thinking my Mom was watching some movie until she told me it was the news. We only had the TV on because Gramps wasn't there yet - Grandma's funeral was only the day before and no TV during shiva (which we broke that whole day). I remember having to call around to try to find a minyan for him to go to because very few people showed up at the house that day since they were trying to close the major highways.
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