A Solemn Remembrance
September 11, 2009
My prayers are with the millions of people touched by the tragedy that occurred on this country’s soil 8 years ago today, and particularly with the families of those who perished. Although a nation heals from its wounds, and as time goes on may forget their individual lives as we go about our daily routine, each 9/11 becoming less painful than the one before it. May the love that runs so deep for those that died make their memories vibrant and alive.
I found myself, oddly, reluctant to put up a post marking the anniversary of 9/11. Its not that I don’t believe we should honor it, or that I don’t believe it should remained indelibly marked into the souls of all those who live their lives in freedom as a reminder that not only can it be taken away in a heartbeat, but that such freedom is a threat to those who live for control. That freedom itself is such a dangerous thought that people would be willing to kill to see it tarnished, or worse, the dream ended.
I believe its because we try so hard to make sure we remember 9/11 that I felt strange about reliving it myself. I almost think that we, as a country, fear forgetting what happened that day. That we believe we will some day move beyond our fears and our memories and even our patriotism. That somehow we’ll manage to weasel out of paying our respects, of remembering those incredible images, out of reliving each incredible moment as it passed us during that horrific day. So we feel obligated to attend to the memorial, to re-open old wounds, to drive ourselves crazy with our mad thoughts, the ones we had when we saw those planes fly into those towers. To haunt ourselves with the overwhelming fear, the sense of dread, the knowledge that nothing was safe and that the world had change irreparably. That we could no longer live in safety and security and blind ignorance of those with whom we shared an increasingly small world.
The truth is, we won’t. We can’t. Its impossible. I know that there’s this deep, gnawing fear in our country, or at least in the conservative ideological circles, that somehow, the “left” or the “liberals” or the “multiculturals” or those who seek to wipe the slate clean with the radical Islamists will somehow manage to erase the memory of 9/11 from our minds and our hearts and our country. Whatever the motivation behind this is — and perhaps it really is nothing more than the fear of what really is and what really can happen, because that reality itself is so terrifying — the result will be the same: it is impossible for us to forget 9/11. We will always remember, I will always remember what that day was like and what it meant. Try as they might, they will never scrap that feeling, that horrific, sinking feeling every American had as they watched the 9/11 events unfold, no matter what their political beliefs and affiliations were on that day, from our collective and individual memories.
People will say I’m wrong, I know. They’ll say that “people like Obama” will do whatever they can to make sure the next generation is raised without knowledge of the 9/11 events or that we’ve already exhibited a total loss of understanding. I saw the New York Post this morning. I know what’s happened and I know what we’ve done, and I don’t doubt any of it, or that in years to come, we will continue down a path that will ultimately make us less safe. We see it each day in our foreign policy, in our refusal to confront those in this world who openly hate us, in our stubborn desire to “talk” with their leaders as though that would do any good whatsoever. In society, and in practice, yes, maybe. Yes, maybe we will forget. Maybe we need more attention to 9/11 to serve as a reminder that our ignorance has consequences and our enemies are many.
In our hearts and minds, we will never forget.
So here’s my simple, simple message: 9/11 may become more about making a stand against the practice, I guess, of forgetting. But hopefully it never, ever becomes less about remembering.
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September 11th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I wish you were right. But I think hRalph Peters hits a lot closer to the truth. To quote a snippet:
September 11th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Oh, and sorry for bunging the HTML tags. I’ve never used them on your blog before :/
September 11th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Hi Emily, My son used to date your cousin, Erin. Like your blog, Orlin
September 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
[...] Zanotti, the American Princess, has A Solemn Remembrance: In our hearts and minds, we will never [...]
September 11th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Hi Orlin…thanks! I remember that.
Phil, I had to resist the temptation to think the way Ralph Peters does. I guess, despite my cynicism, I’m an eternal optimist. I believe that humans can never stop being human. For what happens around us, and what choices we choose to make, we will, ultimately be responsible, but I do believe we all know the truth in the end.
September 11th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being an optimist, at least insofar as one hopes for the best and offers charity and not malice. But it doesn’t change the fact that eight years later we have a President whose idea of combatting Islamofascism amounts to apologizing for how intolerant we are of being killed in the name of Allah