Remembering September 12, 2001 (yes, the 12th)

This week we have begun the process of reflecting on the events of September 11, 2001.  For many it is a far-removed event, and others still suffer the effects of PTSD and other emotional ailments.  Critically for years now, men and women who assisted for days, weeks and months in the rescue, relief and clean up efforts are falling ill in record numbers.  The suffering has been largely in silence.  The battle of 18 years ago continues to rage today and will for years to come.  As time moves on, the trauma is evolving.  Trillions of dollars have been invested in the war, and people who were not even born when we were attacked can now enlist to fight and serve.  Increasingly we are receiving word of responders succumbing to illness as a result of their exposure to the World Trade Center site.  It is critical that we devote our attention to them, as a part of “remembering.”  We are rightfully consumed with concerns of the day: gun violence, healthcare, economic stability, the rapid climate change wreaking havoc on the world, and most importantly, the future we are crafting for our children.  But we can not forget the duty we have to support the people who continue to sacrifice their lives in the name of rushing to heal the deep wounds of the country 18 years ago.  Like others, I miss the America of September 12, 2001; the one that stood together if only for a moment.  The nation that realized its own mortality and its morality – before the cruelty and injustice of Islamophobia hit.  Why don’t we learn?  Why do those lessons not last?  How many must continue to die, or suffer for enough of us to stop complaining (like I’m doing) and effect change?  Where does that change begin?  My naiveté has left me now.  Though I am still young, I am no longer jaded.  Jane/John Q. Public has enormous power.  We can write.  We can protest.  We can vote.

Our officials are tasked with writing and changing laws.  That is the way our constitution is written.  We (Jane/John) cannot.  But we can elect the officials who do this critical work.  And they must be representative of our minds, hearts and ideologies.  They must have the tenacity and the guts.  But we have to put them in power.  That is where our own power lies.  The world looks drastically different than it did 18 years ago, when our hearts were shattered, and our resolve renewed.  We have vacillated between goodness and insanity, no more so than in the last several years.  I pray that the memories of September 11, 2001 do not fade into the remainder of the month, the season, the year.  That we look at those around us.  Render the invisible visible.  Make use of that enormous power we earned in 1775.  Apply the lessons of centuries of enslavement of Blacks, minimizing women, and othering people who do not represent the fabled “ideal.”  Try harder.  Do better.  Vote.