Has it really been six years?
It was cold here this morning, but it has warmed up and feels just like it did on 11 September 2001. I turned on the tv when I got up, looking for a remembrance, but all I got was “The Today Show” with the previously-thought-to-be-serious David Gregory laughing and mugging for the morning news audience. (I hate to sound all hoity-toity, Stretch, but that’s undignified work for the chief White House correspondent.) I turned on the radio; maybe I would hear some sober statements regarding 9/11 and sports, but Erik Kuselias and Michael W. Smith were sitting in for Mike and Mike and they were talking about football. I tried “The Today Show” again and got Gregory with some chef who appeared to be making macaroni and cheese.
So I guess if I want a 9/11 remembrance I have to make one for myself. Which, I guess, is how it should be.
I have mixed feelings over whether or not this day should be a national holiday. Forget the practical considerations: the lost day of work when it falls on a weekday, the salaries and benefits that employers have to pay out to employees, etc. It should be a day that we remember. But should we have to remember it together?
As a people, I don’t think Americans remember very well. Perhaps it’s in our culture: Americans are a forward-looking people who look to our future, not our past.
Our collective bad.
We don’t remember things unless there is a sale involved. Presidents Day? White sale. Independence Day? We buy flag-themed items to flaunt our “patriotism.” Thanksgiving? We eat obscene amounts of food and then start our Christmas shopping. The one thing good about 9/11 is that it seems to have made people take Memorial Day and Veterans Day a little more seriously.
What I remember about 11 September 2001:
It was a beautiful day. Sunny, not a cloud in the sky. The sky was a soft blue. It was warm: not hot, but not seasonal, either; the day did not hint at autumn. I followed the news all day and all night. I saw videotaped footage of a plane striking one of the World Trade Center towers and then saw it replayed over and over and over. I watched as the towers burned. I saw the first tower come down live on tv; I saw the second one fall on replay, about five minutes after it crumbled in NYC. I couldn’t believe they stayed up as long as they did. Tom Brokaw was on tv forever; it was 11pm or midnight here when he finally left the air and Brian Williams took over.
Remembering 9/11 as a nation is a good thing, but so is reflecting on it by yourself. It’s like religion: There is something to be said for sharing the experience with others, but there is also something good in going it alone and thinking about things by yourself, for yourself.
