Remembering 9-11

Five years ago.

In some ways it seems like it was just yesterday, and in some ways it seems like a lifetime ago.

When it happened, my wife and I had only been married for a little more than a year. At the time we didn’t have any children, and now, five years later, we’re expecting our third.

That evening we cried together, we worried together and we prayed together.

The world seemed upside down on that day, and in the chaos of that day, we wondered what kind of world this world had become.

On the following day, we felt the need to do something. We went for a drive together to a place where my great grandparents and grandparents lived.

We sat together in this peaceful quiet place.

We desperately needed a peaceful quiet place.

We needed to get away from the television.

We had seen enough of the events of September 11 on TV. And each image and each report caused heart-wrenching anguish.

In the weeks that followed, there was more anguish, but there were also the wonderful stories of American heroism.

Stories of firefighters, police officers, paramedics and just plain old ordinary people rushing to the aid of injured or fallen people – rushing to comfort those who had lost loved ones.

One of the most inspirational of all stories was the one of the passengers of Flight United 93 who fought back against the terrorist hijackers and the plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Who knows what target was intended for that plane? Who knows what might have happened if the passengers hadn’t shown the kind of bravery they showed on that day.

We have never talked about what happened on that day with our firstborn — our daughter. At some point, I’m sure she will ask questions. We know that right now, she’s not old enough to understand.

I’m not old enough to understand how human beings can become so consumed with hatred that they can justify targeting innocents as they did on that day.

I don’t think I’ll ever be old enough to understand that.

There is one thing I remember thinking before I fell asleep on the night that followed that day.

I wondered what tomorrow would bring.

Would 9-12 be as bad as 9-11? Would it be worse?

I’m glad to say that it wasn’t, and in the five years since, we have not experienced a homeland attack on that scale and that says a lot about how we responded to the attacks of that day.

We remember, and we remain vigilant.

We must.