9-11-01.
12 years ago.
I had been at my job for about two months when terror struck. Business died that day as people put aside their economic activities to watch the news. I remember walking through the customer lounges, seeing fellow employees glued to television sets.
There were no customers.
Bigger things than buying were taking place. Much bigger.
I called my wife and told her to turn on the television after tower number two was hit. A plane flying into one tower was possibly an accident.
Into two - well the meaning was immediately obvoius.
Then the Pentagon. Then Flight 93 going down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
To this day, I still wonder if the people on Flight 93 would have acted the same way had they known it would result in their violent deaths in that field.
"Let's roll!"
This iconic phrase was shouted by Todd Beamer as he led passengers in a mutiny against the hijackers. It was suspected that Flight 93 was going to be used as a weapon against a point in Washington, DC. Possibly the capitol building. Or the White House.
Instead, the heroic efforts of 40 passengers and crew members on that plane led to an aborting of the terrorists' mission.
And now there is silence at the Western Overlook where the memorial resides.
• • • • •
Have we forgotten?
Like any other historical event, 9-11-01 has passed into the misty past. The elementary school children to whom President Bush was reading that day are college student age now. Practically speaking, adults.
In just twelve short years.
We haven't forgotten the event, especially as the grass roots murmurs of "Never Forget" continue to rise up every year on September 11th.
Yet, we have forgotten, in many ways, what we became after the attack. We don't remember the unity of purpose, of grief. We don't remember huddling together in the ashes of that day holding candlelight vigils for those who perished and those who survived.
After passing through the horror, we resumed our busy little lives. Activists and special interests resumed trying to twist the social and financial fabric into their vision of how the United States should be. Politicians resumed their power grabs, and corporations resumed their money grabs. Everything is vastly different from what it had turned into for a short while in September of 2001.
We haven't forgotten, no.
But we have.
