19 Years Remembering · 7:27pm Sep 11th, 2020
People often talk about "turning points" in history - those single events upon which the future changes. But there are not nearly as many single "turning points" as most people think. Far more often, it is a gradual progression of events with some notable moments interspersed to give us a few dots to connect. Moments like the Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand or the Battle of Midway, where history really does drastically change overnight, are comparatively rare.
Even rarer are those moments where we can feel that the world has changed at that moment. Far more often, the drastic change is only felt long after it's come and gone.
Nineteen years ago today, the world was changed irrevocably. The world before September 11th, 2001 is a very different place than the world that came after.
I keenly remember that day - where I was, what I felt. I remember thinking to myself that this was what it must have been like for my grandparents when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I remember knowing that one era had ended and another had begun, and that there was no going back to the way things were.
With the passing of years, it has been jarring to me to realize that there are many people alive today who have no idea what that feels like. If we assume that the average college Senior is about 22 or 23, then it's safe to say that that only the smallest handful of people who are in college right now have any memory of 9/11. Next year, it will be even fewer, and fewer still the year after. Next year, there will be no college Seniors, excepting those who fall outside the average age bracket, who have any memory of the day the world changed.
Yes, there will be other days in the future upon which the world turns, moments where they experience the sensation of instant change, but they will never know, really know, what 9/11 felt like.
But that doesn't mean that they can't still learn from it, just as I learned from my grandparents how the world turned on December 7th, 1941. What it does mean is that those of us who remember have a responsibility to share our stories.
Life is the ongoing progression of old things passing away and new things coming to life. Yet it is also the state of some things, like human nature, remaining essentially unchanged. Thus, the things which pass away always have lessons to teach us - evils to abhor, that we may avoid them, and goodness to embrace, that we might emulate it.
All of us carry within us the capacity for good and for evil. It is our moral responsibility and our great privilege to seek to live virtuous lives. We may never be called upon to do "great" things, at least not as the world defines greatness, but if we learn from our pasts and live well in our own lives, then we can make the world a better place than it was before we entered. Perhaps the world will not drastically turn upon our deeds, but then, does that really matter? After all, the world is far more often changed by slow progress than not.
In the spirit of finding heroes to emulate, I offer you my reflection on everyday goodness from years past, and this video at the bottom telling of ordinary people who rose to extraordinary heroism in the face of abject evil on 9/11. May they be of some inspiration to you as we remember what has gone before.
God bless you all, and God bless America.
Dedicated to the memory of the 2,977 innocent lives lost on 9/11, and to their families and loved ones.
Not Forgotten.
I was six when it happened. I came home from school early, I think, and thought it was a problem with tourists instead of terrorists. I also remember learning my aunt (at the time) was supposed to work at the towers that day but missed her train. It seems like so long ago, but I can still remember things like that.
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Missed her train. Wow. That's... I don't even have words for that.
I remember where I was and what I was doing that terrible morning. I will never forget it.
I was in fourth grade, walking towards the portable building that was my classroom, when I found out. It is weird to think that very few of my college classmates were alive when the world changed.
I remember that life tried To go on that day. We tried to pay attention in class. We tried to play D&D. I remember thinking that it must have been a movie.
I remember I looked at my mother to see how I should be reacting to the situation, and that she was in complete disbelief.
I remember The TV was on when I walked into English that morning — first one to arrive — and I remember the teacher — a New Yorker — looking At me when I did and saying, “Pay attention to this, Mr Krusk, cuz what happens today is going to shape the rest of your life.”
Looking back over everything that’s happened since, he was 100% correct.
I was in fourth grade when it happened, but as to actual specifics, I cannot remember. I do remember on the 10 year anniversary they had special television broadcasts and one of them asked us as viewers if we would have been able to show the same level of heroism as the people who ran into the towers to help rescue their fellow Americans. To be quite honest, I don't know if I'd be able to do that, I'd like to say that I would have tried to do something afterward, but at the very moment, I really don't know.
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None of us can really know until we're really placed in such a situation. All we can do is try to live lives of goodness, sacrifice, and virtue, building the habit of heroism in little moments, so that, if we are ever placed in such a situation, heroism will be what we feel compelled to do.
There are many stories I've heard of people who ran in to help and didn't come out. When hearing from the families of those people, the thing that was always said is that they weren't surprised their sons or daughters were heroes, because they were always trying to help people in little ways. I find that very reassuring, and try to live my life accordingly. God knows I fail, often, but it's a worthy thing to strive for.