It's been ten years. Today, we commemorate those we lost in the largest terrorist attack on our country. Josh and I spent the morning re-watching original footage from NBC and ABC from each plane crash and the building collapses. Before church, we watched the memorial...the people placing flowers in the names of their loved ones and the reading of the names, which took hours. We also spent some time watching football, but this evening we watched the CBS special - footage from one Ladder of the NYPD. It has been a very emotional day for me, one in which the magnitude of the attacks has really sunken in for the first time.
It may sound crazy to say that, because I watched the attacks live in my US History class and in other classes that day. My biggest memory though of my feelings makes me ashamed. I don't know if I was just a selfish kid at that time, or if I overall felt like I was watching a movie. But I remember being upset that sporting events were canceled. If memory serves me, the volleyball team was scheduled to play our biggest rivals, East Jessamine, that week. And all I wanted to do was play. I also remember basically scoffing at other people who were scared, who wanted to leave school to see family. I am very ashamed of those reactions. Today re-watching everything, I can't believe that I was so heartless.
The things that are most striking to me after watching are the amount of children who never met or truly knew their parents/uncles/grandparents. So many children in my own family - this event will be to them as Pearl Harbor is to me, something that you talk to older people in your family about but never get a deep understanding of what it means/meant for our country.
The heroic nature of so many that day, too, is still sinking in. Footage on the CBS special shows the firefighters who simply walked into that building and without questioning started to walk up the stairs. There was a job to be done, and they were going to do it. There are people who died in a field in Pennsylvania. They sat there on that plane - confronted by their own mortality in a way we can all only imagine - and decided to take action.
Then there is the contrast of pure evil and pure love. The people who flew those planes were humans like you and me. They overtook the plane...they flew it decidedly and expertly. They saw the buildings in front of them. They had plenty of time to go back on their decision, and they fully knew the damage and destruction tat would occur. Pure evil.
But the pure love is shown in the outpouring of support, love, patriotism, volunteerism, and courage that was shown after the attacks. People helped their neighbors and cared for them more. More hugs were shared between family members, and we stopped taking a lot of things for granted.
I will always remember this day, and I will continue to watch and read and learn more as this attack continues to sink in with me. I would love to one day visit the memorial and the museum. And I hope to share the lessons of that day ten years ago with other generations.
So what are you memories of that day? What are your stories?
