How One Day Changed a Nation

It was this day back in the year of 2001. Those of us who are old enough remember what happened that picturesque Tuesday Morning. Days to months later, we started using the slogan, “Never Forget.” However, I think that we have forgotten. Let me tell you why I believe that.

I have watched documentary after documentary. I have watched several homemade/amateur films that have been turned into YouTube videos. I have heard the stories of people from several different angles. I remember what I witnessed live and I remember what I was doing on Normal’s Hill that day and the days that followed.

Now, I look around and see a country (generally speaking) that has forgotten what happened on September 11th, 2001. I see a country that forgot what divided us (if only for a moment) and focused on what we had in common. People had church buildings packed to give reverence to God because we were scared. But I also remember that it was a time that the rhetoric was turned up about our neighbors to the East. I remember hearing about the tensions as a child. But everything seemed to be ramped up after that day. I remember hearing and seeing the ignorance and hatred towards a whole group of people because we were told to view them as an enemy instead of focusing on the culprits involved.

A small group of men were sent on a mission by someone who had a lot of hatred in his heart toward a nation that (unfortunately) has some policies that are not beneficial for everyone across the globe. Because of its history of throwing rocks and hiding its hands, I would not doubt if the empire didn’t have a hand in allowing its citizens to be harmed so that it could further its agenda to get unwavering support for its plot of destruction in certain countries. I remember. I will never forget.

I know that we love slogans. But I believe that we could do a better job. I have been asked, “Why do you always talk about the ancestors?” I believe this individual thought I was focused on one timeframe in this country. However, the ancestors are people that have passed on before me that paved a way for me to be where I am in life. Some of them dealt with things that I could never imagine. They don’t necessarily have to be a part of my direct ancestral lineage. They could have been people who were a part of the struggle for oppressed people worldwide. Nevertheless, I remember the ancestors because I don’t want their transition to the ancestral realm to be in vain. So, I remember those ancestors who were selfless on that day.

The loss of life that was witnessed by this nation on that day gave us a glimpse of what we could be and probably what we should be. I remember those innocent lives that were lost that fateful Tuesday and the subsequent days and years after that. I remember how just for a moment, we put internal political and religious banter aside. I remember how we let a vindictive warmonger convince us to give up our privacy in the name of patriotism and subscribe to a genocidal mission that continued for years in the East. This day should be remembered as one of mourning, but for those of us who view life from a broader perspective, we understand that it has been overshadowed by hatred masked as patriotism because we were told to do so.

Never Forget!