Remember 9/11/01 (9/11/08):
Today is the seventh anniversary of September 11, 2001. Last night as I said my prayers I didn’t forget the families of those who died in the terrible attack on the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and in that Pennsylvanian field. I knew that today would be especially hard for them, but it would be hard for everyone who remembers as well.
I started my morning by turning on Glenn Beck. I knew that for the first time since the attacks I would shed tears when I heard the old audio, and saw pictures, and heard memories. That’s what happened. Immediately Glenn Beck began talking about that day, he played a piece of audio that he has played every year since the first anniversary of the attacks. I was right-I did shed tears this time.
I remember where I was that day-I’m sure everyone who was old enough to understand does. I was only eleven(how long ago that seems) and I was with my mom in the car as she drove me to school. She had the radio on, and we heard the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centers in New York. I had never before heard of the Trade Centers, but New York was here. It was here in my country, it was in America. It was near enough to Boston, a place my mom used to live, that she had been there before. I knew New York.
Whatever happened that day at school is a mystery to me. I don’t recall if I watched footage, if it was talked about, if I just acted like I didn’t know because it seemed no one else did. I don’t remember that. I do remember waiting. I had to get home, and the day wasn’t ending fast enough. I wanted to be with my family, but there was no way I could get there until the school day was over. So I waited.
I arrived at home and found the television on, that’s where my memory returns. Seeing a deep horrified sadness on my mother’s face I could only ask- “Mom, what’s going on?” Thinking about it now I can only admire my mom for being able to give me an answer, for somehow making me understand. I don’t think I could explain it to a child, how could you? But she did, and I understood.
I hardly moved from the television screen that day. I sat, I stood, I paced, I asked questions all the while video of people’s bleeding and dirty faces running as a huge cloud of dust engulfed others behind them while the Towers fell, as well as other clips that we all can recognize played in front of my eleven year old eyes. I think I became an American that day.
Never again will I forget that even as a young sixth grader I knew that we had to fight back. I wasn’t going to just lie down dazed and wonder what had happened, I wanted us to do something back. I wanted us to defend ourselves.
At this point in my life I wasn’t listening to talk radio, but I did watch the news with my mother occasionally. It was through the news that I found out that our president George W. Bush would not allow America to shiver in fear, he wouldn’t just let us be attacked, he would fight for us. I watched his address to the nation when he told us all that we would be going to war, and I-like so many other Americans-was ready.
Now on the seventh anniversary I’m still ready. I know that the war we are fighting is right. We need to be over there, and we are doing good in the Middle East. I also know that I will not stand by while so many try to forget about September 11, 2001. The news will refer to it, all the memorials, in small stories that will be quickly passed over. They will not show us the images that covered our television screens that day. They are afraid of reminding us. They make pathetic excuses for not showing them. “It’s too fresh. It will hurt too much.” That, my friends, is exactly why they should show us those images. They should have been running them all day long on every news station on television. If we are not reminded we forget. If we aren’t shown how are we supposed to understand what we’re fighting for? We are not children, we don’t need protection. Sometimes we need to be shown things that could make us feel. Americans need to feel anger, pain, sorrow, all of the emotions that we felt as a single nation that day when those people died. Americans cannot forget.
I hope you remember where you were that day. I hope that you can picture in your mind the exact moment you found out. I hope that you see those images of the Towers falling as sharply in your mind’s eye as though you were watching it all over again. I hope you never forget. I hope you shed tears for your fellow country-men who died that day. And I hope you cheer for the victories we are achieving in a war that we never started, but was brought to our home. I hope you never forget who you are. Remember we are Americans.
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