It’s never been a question of remembering...


...more a question of trying to forget.

Last week, The History Channel was given over to programming focusing on the events in and around September 11th, 2001. It’s was their 9/11 week as they billed it and each night’s primetime schedule was led with shows bearing titles such as Countdown to Ground Zero - The Miracle of Stairway B - The Man Who Predicted 9/11 - The World Trade Center: Rise and Fall - Grounded on 9/11.

Also this week, New York Magazine’s cover contained the blurb:

What If 9/11 Never Happened?


In the issue a series of articles speculated on how life would be if the events New Yorkers experienced on that tragic day hadn’t taken place.

There is a very good article by John Homans titled The Long Funeral which opens with the lines: “Anyone who lived or worked in downtown Manhattan on 9/11 has no need to see the new Oliver Stone movie, powerful as it’s said to be. An anniversary isn’t necessary to remember that day. It comes back easily, in infinite detail. We remember, moment by moment, where we were, where our friends were, what we saw and heard and said as we came to awareness about what was happening...

It‘s worth reading and I suggest you check it out.

The thing I agreed with wholeheartedly is, yes, I do not need to see the Oliver Stone movie. I do not need to see the TV shows on the History Channel. I do not have to read or watch anything else about that day. I remember it very clearly and very vividly. I don’t think I will ever be able to forget it. I won’t validate the point by sharing my own experiences of that day or the weeks afterward. If anything, it would just be counter purposes to what I am trying to say here.

Each year now, coming up on five years, we have stopped and focused on what happened that day. I am all for being respectful of the memory of what happened and the loss of life that occurred but, when do we pass respectful reflection and move into the area of self indulgent scab picking? If a wound is to heal doesn't going back and picking at the scab prevent the wound from ever fully healing.

Unlike a lot of people, I avoided that part of town for a long time after what happened. I did it on purpose. I always want to remember what the area was like before that fateful day and I am looking forward to a day in the future when something new will be there and those few blocks become a part of the city once more.

When I look at the skyline now, it seems empty. I never knew how much I could miss those buildings until they were gone and every time I look at the city from a distance and see the strange skyline which I still cannot get used to I cannot help but remember that day.

I can’t wait for them to finish building a new tower, a new memorial and just finish building that whole complex back up so it can become a part of the city again. When that day comes it will put us a long way along the road to moving forward. People point to September 11th as the day the war on terror began but, really when you think about it the day the war on terror began was back in 1983 when Marines were attacked in Lebanon or even before that when the embassy was taken over in Tehran.

It was just in those cases, it seemed so very far away.

If we were going to measure it by an attack on American soil, then it still wouldn’t have been September 11th. Instead it would be the first World Trade Center attack when Ramzi Yousef and others blew up a truck bomb in the basement of the complex back in 1993.

Five years have passed and while I mean no disrespect to those who lost family and loved ones, I think it is time for us to move on. While we will never forget can we stop trying so hard to remember?