Remembering 9/11
Has America forgotten lessons learned that day?
Where were you five years ago?
For our generation, that question and its answer will forever be a part of us just as it is for past generations who stood as witness to history.
Five years ago, terror swept our shores as we watched the largest terror attack in American history unfold before our eyes.
Like a scene out of a Hollywood film, panic and sheer horror gripped the nation as we watched the towers, one by one, fall.
We watched our president reassure us, as he was moved from location to location, unsure of how the day would end.
The same frustration, fear and confusion we all felt swept his face. But when he approached the microphone, he uttered some words that would echo for weeks to come - “Freedom was attacked this day and freedom will prevail.”
As the days continued and the nonstop news coverage flooded our televisions, the walls of buildings in New York filled with images of loved ones lost in the tragedy.
A somber chord had struck our nation, a nation in mourning. Yet through the darkness of those days and the ashes that cluttered the streets of New York, America rose to one of its finest moments.
Politicians, who weeks before were divided, stood together as one.
Americans rolled up their sleeves and emptied their pockets.
Young men and women drove thousands of miles to New York to help, even in the smallest of ways. Some enlisted in the armed forces while others simply prayed.
No longer were we separated by color, by race, by religion or social class. America was no longer black or white, Republican or Democrat. America was a country that stood together as one, united by a common, tragic equality.
And so, here we stand five years later, but again we stand divided. My how America has changed.
With eyes of suspicion, we board our flights as colors dictate when a threat is near.
Politicians wage battle across party lines, forgetting the day they all stood united. We find our country at war abroad, a war that has drawn a dividing line across our nation.
Is our country so quick to forget the past that we’ve return to the finger pointing and partisan politics that we engaged in before that fateful day?
How many 9/11’s does America need in order to remember how to stand as one?
America, after Sept. 11, exemplified to the world what it meant to stand united.
We exemplified what it meant to throw off our differences to work together to make America a better place.
And now here we are five years later, with the world pointing their fingers at us in shame.
It is true that our nation today is more divided than we have been in recent years.
Our wars abroad and our sinking economy have lead to not only an economical recession, but an emotional one as well.
But America can do better and I believe we can.
We only need to remember five years ago, the day that we stood together as one.
If we are to reflect on this day, to honor those who fell and to move forward together, we only need to look back on the day we all moved as one and together our country will stand through the test of time.
Columnists' opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of The Spectrum