It’s been ten years since the greatest tragedy of our time. It was an attack on America. It was an attack on the American way. I remember where I was, waking up seeing the images and videos.
I don’t think I will forget.
I don’t think I will forget because it has shaped my life or at least the world around me. I don’t think that my life pivoted into a different direction because of the attacks, but the world did.
There are thousands that lost their lives fightin
g a war on terrorism. These brave men and women had their lives shifted, mine was only discomforted.
We now see 9/11 as a reason for why our airplane
lines take hours instead of running onto planes right before take-off. We use it to jockey for politics and use the victims’ deaths as reasons to vote one way or another.
I think of a fallen soldier named Pat Tillman. He is one of my favorite heroes. If there is any one person that I could talk to I think it would be him.
Tillman was a safety for the Arizona Cardinals an
d one of my favorite football players. He was in his prime and was about to make prime dollars with a new contract. Terrorism changed his life. He left the NFL and went to fight for me. Left millions to die for us.
Tillman was a member of the Army Rangers. He served for two years and was killed in a friendly fire incident. For three years, his death was reported as an ambush. He was used posthumously as a recruiting tool.
This is what became of this dark day in our history. It wasn’t about recovering from terror, but winning a war.
I don’t think I will forget, but when I think of Pearl Harbor there are very few feelings that come to mind. I understand that it was awful, but I didn’t even remember what day it was on until a few years ago. I still don’t pay much attention to it.
I now wonder what people did ten years after Pearl Harbor. The country had just finished a world war. Looking back at what was accomplished in the ten years following Pearl Harbor compared to our last years could be staggering.
We have created new computers, tablets, cars, bottled water, HDTV, DVR, Blu-ray and new phones, these things made life easier, but not really better. After Pearl Harbor, people united together, recovered from the Great Depression, strengthe
ned families and worked together to improve the country.
I don’t think I will ever really remember Pearl Harbor because it pulled our country together and we became the United States of America. I don’t think I will ever forget 9/11 because we may never recover from it. The political wedge is becoming w
ider than ever, our economy is as bad as ever and we are pulling apart.
I hope that we can remember these tragedies for the people we lost and mourn for them. Hopefully we can feel that unity that was there for a brief time following the attacks. This country needs to rally around our memories and move forward to a better world. We got our soldiers back and now it is time that we rebuild and recover.
While I don’t think I will be able to forget the visions of two planes hanging from the sides of the Towers, I hope one day that our country will come together and we don’t have to use it as an excuse for where we are. I hope we can once again unite because of it.
Until then, I don’t think I will forget.
