Never Forget

Where were you nine years ago today...



I was at our Wall Street Apartment getting ready for class when Burke called... "Turn on the television" was all he said before he hung up. The image of a smoking and flaming twin tower met my eyes. I sat on the floor in front of the television and watched with shock and horror as the plane hit the second tower. I dragged myself from the television and went to class at the University of Utah. I don't remember class that well. I don't think we were paying all that much attention. I left class and walked to the cafeteria where I knew there was a television. The lounge was filled with students, probably fifty or more sitting in silence. I found a spot on the floor and sat on my backpack. I was going to be there for a while. The new images that I saw were even more shocking and horrifying. The towers crumbling, people running and screaming, firefighters and medics dragging bodies through a cloud of ash. Tears poured down my cheeks and as I gazed at the faces of my fellow students I saw that I was not alone in my grief. I called Burke, " I love you". I called my Mom and Dad, "you are the best parents in the world". My sisters, "You are my best friends! I love you."

I sat across from an Arab as I rode the bus home that afternoon. His face was blank, an expression that revealed no guilt, shame, or remorse. I studied that face trying to read something. I didn't care that he could read me like a book. My eyes questioning whether it was his father, cousin or friend who had caused the terror I saw that day. Looking back I wish I could have smiled at him; shown him my that my heart was not hard, just broken. I suppose it is the gift of time that allowed my heart to heal so that I don't see people and religion the same way today as I did on September 11th. Yet the gift that heals can also destroy. If we let time erase the evidence and silence the voices we will fail our country. Our hearts need to break again today. We should let new tears fall for the loved ones left behind, the soldiers fighting far from home and lives still being lost today. Never Forget September 11th. Never Forget to Fight for Freedom and Never Forget that it is God in whom we Place our Trust.