What is it about nice people that attract total idiots?Nice people are martyrs. Idiots are evangelists.

SOCK IT TO ME BABY!!!

Monday, September 11, 2017

The Day

So I spent quite a while reading Patriots day posts, most of which can say it better than I can.  Some were reposts, which I have never done.

Until now.

This is my post from the ten-year anniversary.  I looked it over, don't really see myself improving on it.




It wasn't my intention to write specifically about this day. Or write at all today.  I've been reading the blogs I follow, and hearing their stories.  I couldn't comment, other than one, hushed, "Wow."  What could I add to the recollections- some at home, some at work.  Some feeling like the last to know, others telling loved ones even as the disaster unfolded.

Do I have memories? Of course.  At first all I knew was "a plane hit the world trade center."  Not even what kind of plane, so I assumed here's some dumbass in a private plane that couldn't navigate around the biggest obstacle he'd ever seen.  Then the details got filled in.  Since patio cushions are so much more important than anything else in life, we had to finish out the day, and I remember intensely not wanting to be there, and I remember my apocalyptic imagination coming out.  I remember heading for church afterwards, because I KNEW we'd all be there.  I remember it taking forever to get through town because gas had magically went up 60 cents and lines at every station were a half-mile down the street.

 Most of all, I remember the next day, and the quietness that told you you never really noticed the noises of air traffic until they weren't there.

And now, ten years have passed, and like the Alamo everyone goes around saying, "never forget."

What is it we're never forgetting?

Is it the horrible fascination of these remembrances, as if spectators at a traffic accident?
Is it an enemy we had nothing against, jealous of what we had, and believing the act was blessed by their god of butchers?
Is it the dead?  Perhaps, for the loved ones who lost them.
Is it the burst of faith in God, calling out to Him in the midst of tragedy? That was the first thing that most people forgot.

Is it the heroes?  Yes, and it should be.  Throwing thoughts of safety aside to help others, which does them infinitely more honor than that accrued by any jackass who wants to kill people he doesn't know in the name of a god that warrants no praise whatsoever.

But the most important thing is the thing that we take from any disaster, any heartache, any loss.  And that is, that as Americans, as free people, as human beings, we get back up from them.

We get back up.

And whenever we face a 9-11 in our lives, that is what to never forget.  We get back up.

That's right, Abdul.  It doesn't matter who you kill.  It doesn't matter how many "virgins" you earn, or how many understand the "point " you're trying to make.  You don't matter, Achmed.

You don't matter.

A comic book character once said, "We have always defied death just by living, truly living, in death's shadow."  We get back up.

Never forget that, Rashad.  And never forget, America.

6 comments:

  1. Chris:
    ---This post (from 6 years prior) is as EVERY BIT as important as it was when first written.
    I can't place the comic quote you mentioned, but I always liked the one from Batman Begins:
    "Why do we fall? So we can learn to get back up."
    That is in essences precisely what you speak to...and guess what? It STILL WORKS (and always will)!
    Whenever we (America) get knocked down, the resilience and courage shown by those who we would least consider, steel their resolve and in doing so, become true heroes and patriots.
    Often times, remembrance is not meant to be joyous, but solemn.
    And through it all (and more) we prevail...as a nation...as a people.
    That's why I agree with you that we ALL should never forget.

    Very good and timeless post.

    Stay safe up there, brother.

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  2. CW-

    Two things from your post stuck a chord with me.

    That was the first thing that most people forgot

    Sad but so true-for a brief instance our country found it's faith again. And then along came the same old media NFL/Kardashian/same sex bathroom/fill in your sound byte here nonsense that swept it away.

    Throwing thoughts of safety aside to help others

    This is what gives me hope for humanity, and actually less so the actions of the NY crews (although their sacrifices were selfless) and more so the actions of people like the volunteers in the town I grew up in.

    I grew up in a Philadelphia suburb where people not only rushed into burning buildings to help people, they did it because they felt it was the right thing to do and not because they were getting paid to do so with a gull pension after 20 years. I don't know many firefighters, and sadly the one I encountered in classes in AZ behaved more like a frat boy than a hero, bragging about how his "brothers" backed him up when he picked a fight he shouldn't have.

    But the fact that hundreds of people ran into the WTC to help people gives me hope that maybe America is not lost.

    However, I am not sure I share your sentiments about Americans getting back up.

    Sadly, those days seem to be gone. Now we ask out government to pick us back up. And we sue them when we don't like the way they help us.

    But I agree with Bob G-this was a good post to revisit. No sense trying to reinvent the wheel.

    Larry

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    Replies
    1. "However, I am not sure I share your sentiments about Americans getting back up.

      Sadly, those days seem to be gone. Now we ask out government to pick us back up. And we sue them when we don't like the way they help us."

      I hope that, in a situation like what happened back then, we still would. For the most part I think we would. But the SM comments during Harvey- and a lesser extent, with Irma- lets me know it wouldn't be near so unanimous anymore.

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  3. Still a bloody awesome post, horrible things happen and yet time marches on and some things are forgotten and some things we never forget despite the length of time that passes

    ReplyDelete