I was driving along the access road to my job in New Jersey. A job I had started on January 3, 2001, a whole new career path with exciting opportunities. I loved it (I kinda hated my boss but I loved the job.) I was on the phone with my best friend, she was still self-employed then (now she’s an incredibly well-respected pre-K art teacher making an amazing impact in one of the worst inner city school districts in the country). We were doing our usual gossiping and such while she put off starting her day a little bit longer. She had the TV on while we chatted.
Suddenly she gasped and said something like, “oh my God a plane just hit one of the World Trade Towers”. My first reaction was, “a commuter plane? What a weird accident.” Her response, “no, I think it was a big plane, they’re saying it was a big plane, its chaos”. I was at work by then and said that I had to go but we’d talk as more news was available.
By the time I got to my office the second plane had hit the second tower. No one was working everyone was desperately searching the internet for answers to questions we hadn’t even asked yet. The US sites like CNN and MSNBC were unreachable too many people were all looking for the same answers to the same unasked questions.
Despite our New Jersey location in the US, we were a company headquartered in Northern Europe with several ex-pat employees who were able to access news sites in their native country (and in their native language) so we got our news from northern Europe about what was going on less than 50 miles northeast from where we sat.
The company I worked for made two drugs that may be needed in a time of emergency, this was that time. All employees onsite that day were called together in the largest available conference area, the number of employees wasn’t as large as normal because it was September and September was the time for big sales meetings. Many of the executive team members as well as other staff were off in Kansas City (I think it was KC) some should have been flying back. I realized I didn’t know when my friend Michele, one of the meeting attendees, would be flying back. We stood together now in that conference room while the VP of Regulatory Affairs addressed us; he was the highest ranking Executive Team member onsite that day. He told us to go home to our families, only essential personnel should stay, those would be the people who might have to get needed drugs to the victims, I was in marketing, I was definitely not essential.
I left work. I wasn’t sure what to do or where to go. I was single at the time, the cell phone lines were jammed, and really, was my call that important considering all the people just wanting to make sure that their loved one WASN’T on one of those planes or maybe was late to work that day.
My friend Michele ended up sharing a rental vehicle with some people she didn’t even know. It was important to get home and it was important to get home, wherever home might be.
In the days and weeks following the attacks the country came together like never before, we were wounded and we needed each other. We had learned that even these hallowed shores weren’t safe from extremism but it doesn’t seem we took that lesson to heart.
Here we are ten years later. Ten long years where the market has fallen apart and we’ve realized that America isn’t as perfect as we once thought. We are still struggling to come back. We’ve weathered situations like Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme which bilked millions and millions of dollars from people just trying to save enough to have a better life.
We’ve seen a new subset of the Republican Party rise to prominence, the Tea Party.
Many of the Tea Party candidates lean on religion as their guide to their ability to govern. Have we learned nothing from religious extremism? I support each person’s right to seek whatever comfort they may find from believing in a deity of some sort as long as that deity is a kind and benevolent one. I don’t support the right to worship any deity that takes a life for any reason, a human life or an animal life. A kind and loving deity doesn’t take life because life is precious to a deity who gives life.
On this 10th anniversary of this tragedy it should be a time to reflect on what is right and good in this world and in life. We are heading towards another US presidential election and things are already heating up to be a crazy race. There are people who believe that being gay is a disease that can be “cured” and people who believe that they will rule with the aid of their God.
Instead of learning from the mistakes of others we are building our lives on their mistakes. It’s my understanding that the terrorist plot was formed to bring down the horrible American infidels; we were considered a Godless people because we didn’t worship the deity of the terrorists. Now it seems we are expected to worship the deity of the Tea Party candidates.
Today, 9/11/11, America feels more divided than ever. Republicans don’t want what they call “Obamacare”, people shouldn’t be “forced” to carry health insurance. That’s an interesting concept considering that I’m forced to carry home and auto insurance, insurance for objects; but I’m not required to have insurance for my health without which no objects would have any value anyway.
There are studies stating that health care costs are the single most common reason for Americans to declare bankruptcy and to lose those objects they are required to insure.
September 11, 2001 was said to remind us of the value of every life but we have forgotten that message just ten years later.
We are so divided now that it seems as though I live in two or more separate countries with very different beliefs. People seem less and less likely to allow people to pursue their individual lives as they see fit.
I want to live in a UNITED States of America, I want to be united by our common belief that there are no true common beliefs and we, as Americans RESPECT that. I respect every person’s right to go to church, temple, mosque or nowhere, I want my rights to be preserved. I don’t just want freedom OF religion, I want freedom FROM religion if that is what comforts me.
We make strong statements that the terrorists will never win but in many ways they have won. We are divided as a people, we are haters. It hurts my soul the way things are now. Sadly, September 12, 2001 was in some strange way a better day than September 12, 2011 will be.
I woke up that day to find American flags proudly displayed everywhere from the gas station up the street to the highway overpasses I drove under to the window of nearly every car. People were nicer, smiles were kinder and words and actions were respectful.
I never want to go back to the actions of 9/11/2001 but I do want to go back to the actions of 9/12/2001. I want to be kinder and more respectful of each other, I want to celebrate our similarities and respect our differences.
Don’t ever forget the events of 9/11/2001, they changed us forever…but tomorrow, 9/12/2011 take time to look back and remember THAT DAY, remember the feeling of not caring if someone was a Republican or Democrat, a Christian, a Jew, an agnostic or an atheist. On 9/12/2001 we all woke up as Americans of the UNITED States of America.
NEVER FORGET.
