Will You Remember?


There are shadows that lead us -
and there are shadows that follow us closely behind.
They can be clearly visible on the brightest of days although some seem to be completely hidden in the darkness. Perception is the key to discovering them. Reflection is the key to understanding them. But we should never be content to think that our shadows can ever be truly gone simply because we no longer are perceptive enough to notice them or reflective enough to care.

I know that I will always carry with me the shadows of 9-11.
With every step I take, the shadowed memories cloud my footsteps like silhouettes of a burden too large and a sadness too great. They are a part of me. My gentle reminders never to forget.

Some of the photos in the video below were taken within a few months of September 11th, 2001. The dust had barely settled on Ground Zero and there was still a dizzying nervousness reflected in the faces of people wandering the streets, desperately searching for answers that would never come. Closure that would never be possible. Makeshift memorials lined the streets and a papered wall with thousands of posters of “missing” faces was a solemn reminder that many of the missing would never be found by their loved ones. A truly unfathomable reality. I slowly searched a posted list of names, sliding my fingertip down the printed pages until I found the name of my cousin. I paused. Holding my hand over his name, I said a prayer. And then I stepped back into my waiting shadow to reflect on the depth of that one moment. The importance of that one day. The horror of that one tragedy that would forever change us as a nation.

We have lost the innocence of our days prior to September 11th.
And the memory of that innocence has now become a shadow.
In the darkness or in the light -

We Can Never Forget.

Miradena

Remember...
With Defiance!


And so we arrive, yet again, at the dreaded annual day of reflection on that most horrific of domestic attacks in our nation's history. It is so fresh in the memory, it doesn't seem like it can possibly be seven years... but it is.

I was standing in my business, when one of my on premises tenants frantically began beating upon my locked door. When I opened it and looked into her eyes, I instantly knew something was really, really wrong.

"They attacked us..." was all she could stammer, through tearful, reddened eyes as she grabbed my hand and dragged me through the door to her bottom floor apartment. When we reached there, the room was filled with her friends and family members. They were all embracing each other, crying and staring transfixed at the unbelievable scene that was unfolding live on the television before us. We stood there together, all of us in utter disbelief, and watched with collective gasps and screams as the second plane impacted the south World Trade Center tower. Then more and more came... the Pentagon hit, the crash in Pennsylvania, the astonishing collapse of both the Twin Towers... We didn't leave that room to try to individually grasp the horrors until well after noon. And, of course, we are still trying.

This year, I pause to consider the aggregate overwhelming sadness, the tattered emotions and the struggle to realize the immensity of what those rotten, despicable bastards did to us. A reality so strong that our minds recoiled to try to deal with it... and the uncertainty that followed.

Do you remember?

...the tears.

...the bewilderment.

...the lost and wandering.

...waiting for the next shoe to fall.

...the hopelessness of the survivors of the initial impacts.

...those who pondered their own coming deaths.

...those who never saw it coming.

...the last, desperate cell phone conversations to loved ones.

Some got to say choked, pleading goodbyes... many did not. Which do you think was more impossible to accept? The loved ones who were left with no last contacts from their friends and family members... or the one's who received them?

Do you remember the empty, eerie skies, completely bereft of jet noise and exhaust stripes after the last airborne commercial flights were finally grounded?

Do you remember your anger? ...OUR anger? Have you yet relinquished it?

I recall reading an article in a local newspaper, here in the land of incessant liberalism, wherein an aspiring young "reporter" made a great effort to get his readers to forget the horrors of that tragic day and just "move on". I almost wrote him about it, but decided not to give him the limelight he so obviously sought.

I fully endorse the noble, so perfectly AMERICAN effort to be stalwart and rebuild a fitting symbol (or symbols) of remembrance. That is our undying spirit of persistence that gave birth to this great nation... and since has sustained her.

But don't tell me to forget and "move on". We are all God's children and due forgiveness for our sins... until we arrive at the mud cave thresholds of those savages that wreaked this havoc upon our people. For them, I only pray for a deserved, total defeat... complete, final and unyielding. Let loose the fateful lightning... until it is done. We must endure, persevere and triumph over this unprecedented evil.

For those who have wandered back into their darkened shells of mental protection and hiding, who render only disrespect, complacency, contempt for contemplation of this catastrophe and criticism of patriotism as a sequent... you shame me. You shame your brethren. Dissuading the discussion from the true facts of what befell us, of what was, and is now gone forever... must surely be the pinnacle of insolence. May God find some form of forgiveness that befits you. I cannot locate it in my heart, and I will always have anger and sadness. The cause of goodness and justice cannot be defeated.

Ignoring the realities of terrorism, where it came from, what its' goals are, its' implacableness and tenacity... are sure fired recipes for more to come, and on a much more ominous, apocalyptic scale.

In all third world countries, there is a common thread amongst each nation's populations. Despite the oppression, poverty and (to us) unimaginable lack of hope, future and promise, the people of these God forsaken places continue in their duties with a dogged determination, never lamenting their individual circumstance. I have come to call it a "quiet acceptance". It is noble, effective in overcoming the odds and commonplace. It is both tolerant of what is unchangeable and excluding of ineffective whining. What would it take for our people to learn this?

We are too pampered and privileged to appreciate what we have. So it follows that so many could just as easily dismiss what is required to keep it.

With regard to the Socialist left, who only briefly stood as Americans in solidarity against our true enemies after that baneful attack, I will strive to adopt that same quiet acceptance of their ridiculous alleged "positions" regarding the dire threats still ahead of us. They attempt to obfuscate, but are truly only minor, noisy obstacles. They are insignificant and will not detour the advance of freedom and liberty. We cannot let them.

I choose to instead look ahead to the rebuilding of the proud symbols of freedom that those soulless animals brought down. I will now focus less on the gore, and more intensely upon the lessons. I want our children to be taught the real history of what happened, without the blame-America liberal rewriting. We must avenge those innocents that were murdered, and in doing so never let them die in vain! Rather, their sacrifices must be reminders of what we have achieved and how critical it is to retain and protect it.

May God bless America, protecting and preserving their souls, and their families, forever.