Yesterday was 9/11. I can't believe it's been nine years already. I can still picture walking to my second grade classroom and everyone talking about a terrible plane crash, and me and the rest of my classmates found ourselves confused and scared. I was walking down the hall and saw my mom walking towards me. When I asked her why she wasn't at work she told me the office was closed because it wasn't safe to be in a tall building in a major city. As buildings crumbled to the ground, many lives were crumbling as well, being shattered by the news of a lost loved one. For me, 9/11 was awful and I will never forget that day, but for others, life was changed forever. Drastically.
David Whiting, for the Orange County Registar, wrote an article called "Scars from 9/11 mean we won't forget". Towards the end of the article he writes; "With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 one year away, it is time to heal. And, if for no one else's sake but our own, perhaps it's also time to forgive. But I want the scars to remain forever." By this he is talking about ground zero as a reminder to people of this awful day, but those aren't the only scars that were left by 9/11. What about the single mother working long shifts to take care of her three children? What about the man staring at his wife's empty seat every night as he eats dinner alone? What about the kid who doesn't know what his father looks like or who his father really was? Should these scars remain forever? Yes, it will probably always have an impact on these peoples' lives, and they will always feel pain and sadness for his/her loved one. But is it fair to say that these people need to keep hanging on to these memories, to clutch on to the pain, to thrive on this anger everyday. Everyone heals at a different rate and a different pace. Some may never be able to deal with loss, while others may be able to move on and get on with their lives. I know Whiting meant to be talking about people remembering the awful events and to leave ground zero as a reminder of this, but some live with reminders everyday. Yes, we should be reminded of this event for it is important to honor the lives lost but some scars must heal over.
Dani, I completely agree with you. No matter what this day will be in our lives forever and it will continually be taught in our history, like Pearl Harbor as been. But it is also extremely painful for those who lost loved ones. Had Whiting lost some in the attacks? Does he know what it feels like? I wonder if any of those people who lost their families and friends could even stay in New York. The emptiness of Ground Zero coinciding with the emptiness in their own lives. Maybe there's a time for them all to move on. And maybe we, as a nation, could too.
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