Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Remembering

I remember.

I don't dwell--I've always been one to look more to the future than back on the past. But some things should not be forgotten.

So I do remember.





Do you?

11 comments:

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Yes, but I can't bear to dwell on it. That day was worse than the day JFK was killed, worse than the day his brother Bobby was killed, worse than the day MLK was killed. Those were all unforgettable tragedies, but in each of those cases, someone killed an individual... 9/11 didn't just kill many more individuals; it killed something in our national psyche. It shattered hope, and turned our world upside down. Everyone was stunned; everyone cried. Yes, I remember.

Patty Blount said...

My brother-in-law was missing for hours that day. He worked at the WTC site, but luckily, not in Towers 1 or 2. He came home but so many of his friends and colleagues never did.

Neighbors never did.

Relatives of coworkers never did.

I was at work when the news came and everyone assumed it was a small plane. We headed to the cafeteria to watch on one of the TVs. We watched the second jet fly straight and then knife-edge at the last second for maximum damage.

A woman next to me screamed. Her daughter worked in Tower 2. I sent her home. It would be two days before we learned her daughter survived.

I remember watching this footage with the sense that I was watching a movie. Only the credits never rolled. When it finally registered that we were under attack, I had to leave, I had to get home and die with my kids in my arms.

But the sun came up the next day. And the day after that. A few days passed then years and here we are, eleven years later and that simple acknowledgment takes some of the edge off.

We're still here. Wounded certainly, but not done.

abby mumford said...

it's impossible to forget.

i'll always remember where i was (stuck in back to back undergrad classes, so i had no idea what was going on until a prof ran into the room screaming the US was under attack).

i'll always remember that my roommate at the time's younger sister's birthday is 9/11 and for a year, her mother collected newspaper clippings and magazine articles about all the good and heroic things that came out of that day, so she wouldn't feel so awful celebrating her birthday when everyone around her was falling apart.

Delia said...

I'm with you. I don't dwell; it's too horrific to dwell.

LD Masterson said...

I served as a Red Cross volunteer at the respite center inside the ground zero perimeter. I remember.

Judy,Judy,Judy. said...

Yep I remember.

Al said...

I do.
It changed the world not just the US.

Dianne K. Salerni said...

I remember trying to teach math and reading and science that day to fifth grade students who didn't know what was going on. We weren't allowed to tell them. We were instructed to continue, business as usual, although the misery and fear and shock was plain on every adult face. I felt like a robot, making my body work and my mouth move while my brain was screaming inside.

(Just in case our principal's edict sounds harsh -- I later found out that 2 of my students had parents flying that day. Both were fine, of course, but it was a good thing I didn't tell the class what happened.)

Teri Anne Stanley said...

I realized, watching a re-broadcastof the coverage from that morning, that my kids have grown up in a post-911 world with very little memory of the actual events (they were 4, 6, and 8). I kind of wanted to make them sit down and watch the news of that day to try to understand the confusion and fear that EVERYONE felt that day...you can hear it in Katie and Matt's voices, all the people they spoke to over the phone...how horrible it was but how much closer it brought us all (at least for a while).

Bess Weatherby said...

I do. Lovely post, Linda!

Dawn@Lighten Up! said...

I remember...dropping my daughter off at preschool. The security guard told me.
Never the same, after that.