Like many, every 9/11 anniversary brings me back to where I was and what I was doing. Everyone glued to the television trying to make sense of how a commercial aircraft could have hit the World Trade Center on such a clear fall day.
Then the second plane hit and we knew at that moment this was a deliberate act. I often think that my generation, the so-called “Gen-Xer’s” lost our youthful innocents and perhaps our naivete that morning and nothing would be quite same again.
We can all recall the images and carnage, but, I would suggest that for a moment each 9/11 we also recall the tremendous outpouring of cooperation, the spontaneous and ubiquitous displaying of American flags across the nation, firefighters and police officers working together save or recover their missing colleagues. For the days, weeks, and months following the attacks Americans put aside their petty individual grievances to grieve together.
The killing of 3,000 human during the early morning of a beautiful day, much like today, will never be erased from our conscious nor can it be undone. What I think we can do to remember the lives lost is to reflect on the perspective 9/11 provides.
September 11, 2017