The Spirit of 9/12
Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America, on September 11th, 2001. The most commonly expressed view this week is, “wow, how has 20 years gone by so quickly”.
Every generation has its pivotal moment, where people say they remember where they were when they heard the news.
For some, it was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For others, the assassination of President Kennedy. For me as a college student at the time, the space shuttle Challenger explosion comes to mind. And a generation after that, the sight of one, then two, planes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York.
I was teaching at a college at the time. In my classroom, I saw the faces of 18, 19, 20-year-olds, knowing it was a very big deal but numb to the true impact it might have on their lives, because so little was known in the first few hours. I then saw one of my senior colleagues, who after a lifetime covering the news, stood in front of a television set, taking notes. His life had been changed forever on December 7, 1941…he left college to serve in the Navy. I can only imagine the parallels he drew in his mind with every note he took. The president then, Franklin Roosevelt, called it a date that would live in infamy.
So it was as well now-20 years ago. Those fresh faced college students are now middle aged and with their own children about to go to college. With enhanced uncertainty in the world on the terror front, we can only pray they don’t have their own pivotal moment any time soon, and that includes the more insidious attacks…whether a global virus, or erosion from within our society.
Recall how united we were the day after the attack, the so-called 9/12 effect. Sadly, that didn’t take long to disappear. And we could dearly use the Spirit of 9/12 again right now. Think of that this weekend, as you think of those we lost 20 years ago and their families, as well as those lost in the two decades since and their families, as the war on terror continued.
