Friday, September 11, 2009

Post 6: Never Forget

So far the news has been filled with media in regards to the terrorist attack on 9/11 honoring the memory of the people lost and offering the support to those families having to live through this particularly painful anniversary. It’s hard to believe that it has eight years since the attack. I remember where I was when it happened. I was at my college in PA (not far from where the United Flight 93 plane was brought down before it could reach its destination) The feeling of uncertainty, fear, and panic gripped the nation.

Something else happened however that flooded the country. The idea and feeling of Patriotism and Unity. When I reflect back to those days, people that hated other people on my campus actually hugged each other. Love, sympathy, and a genuine desire to support others flowed through my campus like a tidal wave. It was amazing to see. I knew it was a Nationwide feeling, due to the media being portrayed. Of course there was the typical Bush “battle cry” to take up arms and fight the “Evil doers” , but for that first 3-5 months you couldn’t flip through a channel without companies making commercials strictly focused on trying to help calm a Nation and reflect on those lost. Of course I am not naïve to think that it wasn’t a choice rooted in wanting to make money, but at a time like that who is thinking about it when every human being was reaching out to be comforted?

It took a disaster like 9/11 to bring our Country together. Black, White, Yellow, Brown… it didn’t matter who you were… compassion finally brought our Nation together and sympathy from other countries was expressed constantly.

Today I remember 9/11. I honor the dead. I respect and support the families affected. And I remember that even in the darkest times, we still have the spirit in our hearts to be united so that trivial things such as race and skin color mean nothing compared to the human heart.

4 comments:

  1. Mike I respect your speech about 9/11. But I must have to disagree with you a little about the unity thing. There was one group who was separated from the rest of us. It was a really bad time for the Arab American community ,they were discriminated against and hated by others, even though they had nothing to do with the attacks and they might not have agreed with it at all. Sadly I know of someone in my town who shortly after 9/11 pulled an Arab-American out of a car and beat him up. A tragedy, but something will always haunt the unity of 9/11 for me.

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  2. Touche Dan that is a VERY good point and I never considered that since I didn't have ANY Arab American's around me at the time. In fact the college campus I belonged to at the time had none enrolled in it as far as I knew if you can believe it (its not hard to believe since I know how much of a "bubble" we lived in, within that college compared to others).

    So point well taken, and I am sorry that incident occurred in your town.

    And for the record it wasn't a speech it was just my thoughts. I don't make speeches... saves me from looking like too much of a jackass haha

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  3. Yeah I guess speech was the wrong terminology there, I apologize for that. I was tired when I wrote that comment, hence all the bad grammar. I hope you don't think I was attacking you by the way, that was not my intention at all, and I do hope you will accept my apology if you felt attacked.

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  4. No no I didn;t feel attacked at all I was just trying to explain myself better. Sometimes when I write I just go with the flow and don't edit haha

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