Much has been written in the last few days across the social networks on how people are remembering Sept. 11, 2001.
Many have written about where they were when they first heard of the terrorist attacks on the United States and how they felt in that moment as the events unfolded in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
I had planned to take a morning off work, I had some errands to run and wanted to take my time getting everything done before heading into work. Generally I have the radio on in the morning but because I was not in my normal work-day routine I hadn’t turned on the radio first thing that morning.
I was a little bit behind the initial news reports when I flipped on the radio and came into the events as they were unfolding. A plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York. I immediately, like many others including those reporting on the initial crash, assumed it was an accident.
Obviously it was a terrible crash but no one listening in those early minutes had any idea of what was soon to follow. Being an avid news junkie, it comes with the territory, I began to follow the news on several stations in Canada and the U.S. I think I eventually went to work that day, I can’t really recall. By the time the second plane crashed I knew our sense of security in North America had been changed forever.
Until that morning terrorist attacks were something that happened somewhere else, in the Middle East or maybe in Europe but not in North America. Certainly there had been home grown terror before such as the previous attack on the World Trade Centre in the form of a bombing or an armed gunman killing students in Montreal but these were isolated incidents in our collective minds.
These senseless acts of violence were the work of individuals or a few deranged people. North America and specifically the United States had never before been targeted in such a manner as it was on Sept. 11, 2001. It forever shattered our sense of security, our feeling that we were in some way protected from the terror others have faced around the world.
No longer was terrorism something we talked about in reference to other countries, those events 10 years ago brought terrorism to our doorstep and for many, especially those who lost loved ones in those attacks, it came right in their door and created a void they will never be able to fill.
For those who live with the loss every day it seems unbelievable to them that anyone could ever forget what happened on that tragic morning. For those who were not directly impacted it wasn’t long before those images and feelings faded to the background of every day life.
This past week as those images have once again been at the forefront it didn’t take long before some of those same emotions rose to the surface, it was like watching that day, 10 years ago unfold all over again.
While it doesn’t serve anyone to dwell on the terrible loss of life and our shaken sense of security, it doesn’t hurt to remember how we felt on that day, what it meant to us and what we resolved to do in the face of that terror. Many good things came out of that day and the days that have followed. People stepped up to donate blood, to search for victims and to comfort those in mourning.
At the end of the day terror can only win if we stand down and give up the fight. When we care about our fellowman and put that care into action than terror has no hold on us. In the past 10 years we have rebuilt our sense of security, a little bit wiser than we were before, but still unwilling to give up our way of life because someone tried to take it away.