A Few Thoughts About Today

Today much will be said by many others a lot better than I could ever say anything.  It's a day where everyone has their own story.  Where they were when they heard or saw what was happening.  Like many people, I wasn't there.  Thankfully, I didn't know anyone who was.

My own story is pretty uninteresting to anyone but myself.  I was in high school.  The phone rang in my Algebra class, and the teacher informed the class that a plane hit one of the World Trade Towers.  I can't remember if she turned the TV on or not.  I know it was almost the end of that class,soon the bell rang, and the TVs were on by the time I arrived at my Biology class.  That's where I saw the towers fall.  I remember how shaken and disturbed my American History teacher was that day.  When my orchestra teacher wanted us to practice during class as we normally did, I remember several of us being very angry. 

I know that, being sixteen at the time, the day didn't have as much immediate impact on me as it should have.  That afternoon I remember a few friends and I went over someone's house to play some video games.  His mom was there, and she mentioned to us how upset she was after hearing about all the firefighters that had probably died.  I remember having tears in my eyes days later as I looked at pictures of what happened.

I've been blessed that, compared to so many others, the direct impact of 9/11 on my life has been small.  No one I know died that day.  Friends and acquaintances have served in the resulting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but all have thankfully returned safely.  I know this day has affected millions of others around the world in much worse ways.

One moment that always sticks with me didn't happen on September 11th, but a few months earlier.  I had been in New York City that summer with my church's youth group.  One of the first things we were going to do upon arriving was go up into one of the World Trade Towers, but we were behind schedule.  Instead, we drove slowly right by them and gaped upward at how enormous they were from below.  To explain why we were skipping our trip up the tower, my youth group leader said something to the effect of "Well there's always next year."

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I was going to end with some thoughts on how America has allowed itself to be controlled by fear in the wake of 9/11, but then I found an article published this morning by Spencer Ackerman of Wired's Danger Room blog, and I decided you'd be much better off just reading it instead.  It says everything I wanted to say and more:  
How to Beat Terrorism: Refuse to be Terrorized 


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LIFE - 9/11: The 25 Most Powerful Photos