For U.S. Americans born in the 1990’s and before, September 11, 2001 is a day we remember. The attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia brought a different kind of large scale violence to our shores.
This tragedy left a mark on our social and political landscape and deeply effected our personal psyches. I am aware that other writers will be better at describing the horrors and devastation of that day. I saw and felt much of that and I can still touch the deep and painful sadness of that day.
Still, I believe tragedy does not have to get the last word. As a follower of the path of Jesus, I see that death does not get the final word; life does. I want to reflect for a moment on some of the consequences from the tragedy.
Seeing “the Helpers.” Fred Rogers (of the PBS show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) recollected his mother’s words given to help him when bad and scary things happen:
“Always look for the helpers,” she’d tell me. “There’s always someone who is trying to help.”
-Fred Rogers
During and in the aftermath of the attacks, there were so many volunteers and first responders who stepped up, ran into danger when everyone else was running out. It was obvious as I watched and in the stories told afterward. Many people did everything they could to help others, including for some laying down their lives.
Community. I can still remember going for a walk in our neighborhood in the week following 9/11 when neighbors I barely knew were offering to help if we needed anything. There was a sense of being in something bigger than any of us and wanting to draw closer to one another. Even our sometimes ugly political rivalries and vitriol were set aside as we saw ourselves as part of a hurting community, as differing and still one. Beyond our shores, nations around the world offered assistance and solidarity in a variety of ways.
Unexpected Friends. In the time immediately following 9/11, I received the gift of people coming into my life who I might have been unlikely to meet otherwise. As folks in the reserve were activated, they moved to our area, a suburb of Washington, D.C. near the Pentagon. Several families became lifelong friends with whom I am still in contact. This has been and continues to be a gift.
Othering. Not everything felt like a gift in response to that day: fear led to anti-Muslim violence and increased xenophobia. Some of our homegrown extremism has gotten louder and worse. Compromise become a “bad word” to some.
There is no undoing what happened in the United States on September 11, 2001. We cannot go back and change those events. We can, however, remember, learn, and practice the better. Together.
Where were you that day?
Infinitely Precious 