Remembering Nine-Eleven

Eleven days.

That is how long I had been in New Jersey.

Shirli was driving me to the Newton Country Club for a job interview. We were listening to the radio and talking about the new life we had begun together. The radio station cut the music and made the announcement about the first plane hitting the tower. No one knew what was happening. It was obviously a tragedy. 

Then the second plane struck.

It became obvious that planes striking the Twin Towers was intentional.

Somewhere in the passenger plane(s) scenario two more airliners were involved. One crashed into the Pentagon. One [who knows what its target was] was forced to crash in a Pennsylvania field by a few brave patriotic Americans charging the hijackers. “Let’s roll.”

The Twin Towers burned and collapsed.

No one survived the intentional plane crashes.

A few shy of 3,000 Americans died in a matter of minutes.

American first-responders are still dying as a result of illnesses related to the Twin Towers fires and debris.

In a little longer than a twinkling of an eye on that day, and for a short while following, we all became New Yorkers. In the midst of the terroristic tragedy, we became a unified America. Skin pigmentation did not matter. The Mason-Dixon Line was erased. Political affiliation did not matter. Church affiliation or denominational preference did not matter. We were America. We were a unified country suffering together. We were afraid together. We were angry together.

Recollection is a good thing. It is good to recollect and remember the events of Nine-Eleven.

In recollection it is good to remember that hatred is an evil force.

Those that planned and carried out the airborne assaults that day eighteen years ago were not operating out of a motive of kindness. Far from it. Their motives were hatred driven. Their goal was to kill as many people as they could. Their goal was maximum effect to inflict as much death, pain, and fear as they could. They were partially successful. Their partial success lasted for a while before the American tendency toward selective amnesia set in and people began to forget.

I have not forgotten.

I will not forget.

I cannot forget.

And still, to this day, when I see an airliner in the sky … I cannot help but to wonder.

Oh. I got the job on the golf course and started the next day.