A Day to Remember

Seven years ago was my first semester at community college. Seven years ago today I had just come out of my English class and met my best friend, J in the cafeteria. We got our bagel/danish and J went to sit in the actual cafeteria; however, I had caught a glimpse of the TV on the way through and noticed many students sitting around a breaking news report. "Wait," I said to J, "Where are you going?" "To sit by the windows," J replied with much confusion. "No, there's something going on. I want to see the TV," I said. Hesitantly, J walked with me back to the TV and we sat down, just in time to see the second plane run into the second trade tower in New York. I had barely sat down and wasn't even sure of what I was seeing...until the first tower collapsed. This was my morning on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. Hundreds of students gathered around us very quickly and watched the devastating news with us. Our college was basically evacuated as there is a power plant nearby and there were concerns that it could be a target. I went to work that night and finally cried for the thousands of lost lives, the heartless attack on our country, the families who had no idea where their loved ones were, the fear that people must have felt on the planes and in the towers - just the shock of it all.

Seven years later, I still grieve and make sure to take a moment and remember that day. But now, I've also become more aware. There are wars all over the world. Thousands of people die in other countries all the time because of hatred, disease, poverty. 9/11 brought us together as a country but then it made us turn in the wrong direction. We became a country full of hatred and war. People with bumper stickers on their cars saying things like, "It's God's job to forgive Bin Laden. It's our job to arrange the meeting." Why didn't this tragedy bring us together as in "United We Stand" and then turn us toward helping and aiding others? How are we, as a nation, helping the poor, the hungry, the diseased, the war-ravaged? Instead of realizing that we're not above everything just because we're a powerful and rich country, we turned around and started shooting at the next country that pissed us off. Sometimes, tragedies have no good outcome except to smack us in the face and show us that we are not invincible, nor are we above others who have had "some bad luck" along the way. 9/11 should have humbled us but it didn't. I'm sorry to anyone that I offend, but I am ashamed of the people in our country who use 9/11 as a way to elevate themselves above other countries and other people, and to be unaccepting of any other culture other than their own. Wake up everyone! You have become the people you most hate.

I'm sorry these last two days weren't so frilly. The next days surely will be back to the norm.

Have a great day and never forget.