So much has transpired since September 11, 2001. Jihad, Shock & Awe, “with us or against us”, recession, “Mission Accomplished”, too big to fail, Blackwater, Axis of Evil, immigration, but has our world progressed…or has it been in continual regression? Proactive, or reactive? The Creator and Editor of Quarterlife Magazine impart their own thoughts on the coming 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
I was so thankful that morning, I couldn’t have been happier to be at the orthodontist at 8 in the morning. I was almost thrilled to be in an uncomfortable chair having my braces tightened, than be at early morning marching band practice with Mr. Walsh. For me, just like many of us (then) kids, it could have been any other morning. We were starting our school day, rolling our eyes at our teachers and texting our friends on our coolest monochrome Nokia phones.
It was the last day of our normality.
Normal, do you remember what that felt like then? It was the feeling of knowing what tomorrow held. We would go to school, read our Harry Potter Books and go to bed knowing we would do it all over again tomorrow. But that Tuesday morning changed everything, and we came to realize after 9/11 that tomorrow really wasn’t a sure thing. After 9/11, while many of us were trying to understand basic algebra or trying to get a (then perfect) 1600 SAT score, we were also trying to understand the malignant diatribe between nations, terrorists, and countrymen that have seemed to unravel our world with every utterance.
In 2001, I would have bet my newly downloaded Aaliyah CD from Napster that I was not the only one who thought, “will things ever be normal” after 9/11. And today, I’d bet my (rumored) iPhone 5 that a lot of us still don’t know that answer. To those of us now Gen-Y adults, the past 10 years have played out like an elaborate movie plot. Only Hollywood could interject such a level of political absurdity, death, devastation, and unknowing into our lives. As we’ve watched and listened, our developing minds have seemed to stand still since 2001, as the world continues to stumble around us.
Why does it seem that after 10 years, our world cannot regain its footing? Was this how the world felt for our grandparents after WWII? Did the young generation of that time find a gleaming and defining moment that reigned in “normality”? Many would say things are back to normal, but the truth is the past decade has raised a generation of children watching adults squabble, steal, and murder—and now as adults, what are we supposed to do?
The road to the “status quo” has been repaved over the past 10 years, and no one knows where the median is; leaving us to decide if we will be the ones to answer “will things ever be normal,” or are we still waiting for someone to tell us, “Mission Accomplished”?
I remember exactly where I was on September 11, 2001 when I heard about the World Trade Center being hit. I was in the 11th grade, and everyone had just arrived to homeroom for 1st quarter progress reports. Everyone, including our teacher, sat in silence watching the news, not sure of how to react. It was completely inconceivable. First processing that we, our country, had been attacked; and secondly, the repercussions of this attack on our lives. The latter of which I don’t think is something that will ever be able to be fully understood.
In the aftermath of this day, in the last ten years, our country has shown incredible durability, and incredible hubris. Immediately following the chaos of 9/11/2001, our country, our leaders, our people, everyone showed a remarkable ability to band together and refuse to cower in the face of such unequivocal evil. While we mourned for the loved ones who were taken from us, we proved that we, as a country, are far more than the sum of our parts. We were attacked by people who simply had no capacity to understand what it was they were attacking. Freedom, simply put. Our inalienable rights as Americans.
Our enemies hate it, because they don’t understand it. And that’s something that should be remembered, but often seems lost in a world now consumed with hate and finger-pointing. This was not an attack on a religion. This was not an attack on a political party. This was not an attack on a race. This wasn’t Christianity vs. Muslim, Radical vs.Extremist, Black vs. White vs. Yellow vs. Brown, vs. Green vs. Blue. This attack was on the fundamental principle for which all of the Americans just listed live and base their lives.
Freedom.
My most fervent wish in the coming decades is that we are able to remember that all creeds and types of American citizens were attacked that day – “We are all Americans”.
How are you feeling 10 years after 9/11?
