In Memoriam

I don’t feel right posting something funny on this solemn day, as if laughing on 9/11 makes a person unpatriotic. For many people, it is a day of reflection, of sadness, of introspection. Our nation suffered a horrible tragedy on this day thirteen years ago. Some people lost their lives, some people lost their loved ones, and the rest of us lost our sense of safety.

The truth is, most of us did feel safe up to that day. We had not had much in the way of large scale loss of human life, and certainly not on our own soil. Sure, we kill each other or ourselves on a daily basis, but we consider those small, individual tragedies, not one that affects the nation’s collective conscience. Over three thousand people died on 9/11, not just counting the Twin Towers. According to the US Census, over 6,000 Americans die every day.  There are also over 12,000 American babies born every day, so we still come out ahead, don’t we?

I feel less safe now than I did thirteen years ago.  Not because of the terrorists from lands far away. I feel less safe because of my fellow Americans.  I don’t want to go to a store and see people walking around with guns. I don’t want to be scared to honk my horn at another car to get their attention. I don’t want to worry about my daughters going to school.  One of those I don’t worry about every day, but I bet you can’t tell which one it is.

My daughters wished each other a happy 9/11 Day this morning. One of them was a toddler thirteen years ago, the other in utero. It’s meaningless to them, really.  They don’t know what the United States used to be like, before 9/11. These are the same kids who say Happy Memorial Day, Happy MLK Day, Happy Veterans Day.  If they ever remember Pearl Harbor Day, I am sure they would wish me a happy one of those as well. I wonder if in a hundred years, 9/11 will be a day off, the mourning and reflection replaced with a tasty cookout and an awesome sale at whatever replaces Best Buy.

Was I scared after 9//11, my daughters asked me? I told them yes and no. I wasn’t scared for my personal safety. I live in South Carolina. It doesn’t strike me as the biggest or most effective target of terrorism. I didn’t know anyone who died that day. I cannot imagine what it was like to be in New York City, in Washington, D.C., in Pennsylvania, on that day and for months after.  I am moved by the stories of others, as most of us are, but as far as a personal connection to that day, no, I am lucky I don’t have one.

What I was scared of, and continue to be, is how easily we gave up personal freedoms in the name of security for the country. We all lost our privacy that day, and we continue to give it up with very little protest. We gave up common sense, and a sense of community and trust and compassion. We gave up our belief in difference of opinion. We gave up mutual respect.

Does today make me sad? Yes, but not just for the loss of those two twin towers, for the people whose lives were taken from them. I am sad for myself, for my fellow Americans, and for my children. I am sad for what this country has become, for what we once were.  And I am sad because as a nation, I don’t think we have really learned anything from the tragedy thirteen years ago.

I hope today is a day of reflection, of telling those that matter to you that you love them. Life is fleeting, but so is freedom.