Rememberances

I' realizing today that I pretty much let yesterday pass without much fanfare. It's not that I don't still grieve a bit for all we lost 11 years ago, but I'm actually glad I didn't mark it as much. Because it means those responsible have lost what remains of their hold over me.

Last year, I sang the National Anthem and God Bless America at the county-sponsored 10th memorial. It wasn't the first time I'd participated along with my Department's honor guard and those of the other local agencies. But it was the most moving.

September 11th, 2001 was a normal morning of 9th grade for me. I remember heading out to gym class and hearing Ms. Walsh say a plane hit a building. I didn't know what the WTC was or even where it was, and it seemed to be an accident, last we'd heard. The next hours would change that. And then the next weeks and months would be full of new words, new names, new realities.

Standing on the platform at that 10th ceremony, I felt deeply the loss of innocence, lives and much more. Many of us were too young to know many of the soldiers who served in the Gulf War. This time, it was my friends who went away. War, it's costs in humanity and in money will always be distasteful.
That day, I remembered the victims, the brave emergency services personnel who gave everything to save who they could. Many of whom were just like my co-workers today. And lastly, I remembered the awkward girl, still adjusting to high school and glasses. Am I still her, now at 25? Yes. But I fervently wish she had never had to learn the meaning of "al Qaeda" or hear the hate spewed from the mouths of friends and leaders. Had never had to be searched at the airport at 17 because she bought a one-way ticket and that meant she was just as bad as the men who orchestrated 9/11.

We can't go back. But we can go forward together. Go forward, leaving the hate filled years behind us, taking from this day only the good. The memories of those lost, the stories of heroism, these are worth marking each year.

And that's all I have to say about that.