Remember

I remember clearly eight years ago getting up in the morning and seeing my mother watching the television with watery eyes. I went to get some breakfast and my mom came into the kitchen to explain that early that morning planes had flown into the two tallest towers in the world. I had no idea which were the two tallest buildings in the world were and I assumed it was two sister towers in China or Japan or something. She explained that it was the World Trade Center right in NY. Two jet planes. High-jacked. Flown directly into the towers. They killed everybody. Then my mother started to cry.

The whole rest of the day we sat and watched the television. Over and over again we watched that second plane enter the building and almost come out the other side. We listened over and over again to the absolute shock of observers when it dawned upon them, as that second plane came in, that this was no accident. We were attacked. We watched as over and over again people were shown who chose to end their life by jumping out the window than to burn in the agonizing heat of the flames. Over and over again we watched in horror and disbelief as the first tower, quickly followed by the second, peeled like a banana down to the ground ending the lives inside. Over and over again we watched people on the ground run in terror from the debris. We watched people on the rubble, dazed, confused, and unsure what to do next. I remember walking out that night and looking up at the sky. U.S. airspace had been shut down and I could see to F15s on a night patrol over the valley. Days afterward we watched the dust billow from ground zero. The dust we knew, was made up of concrete, dirt—and people.

Never before were we so united. We recuperated like a boxer who just took a hit. Left, Right, we were all together. People made eye contact. They gave knowing nods to one another saying, “We will do something about this.” We were going to go in, get the Taliban, get those responsible, and end terrorism once and for all. We stood united against the evil that attacked us. Attacked us.

Now it’s eight years later and that unity has faded. People have forgotten what they felt that day. They fail to transport themselves back and relive those memories of shock, horror, and unity. Even two years after 9/11 American flags could be seen on dozens of cars and trucks on the road. Today, I saw eight. Things got a little confusing. We found the hotspot in Iraq instead of Afghanistan. I don’t know why exactly we went to Iraq, I don’t oppose it exactly, but now it’s given society a convenient distraction. Once again we are split and lost that ‘go give ‘em hell’ attitude we all had right after 9/11. We need to remember. We need to get that back. We need to remember that we were attacked, our fellow Americans murdered, and that such action can not pass without repercussion. We need to remember that the world still has bad guys. So many things we need to remember.