nmah4357.xml

nmah4357.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

It was an ordinary September morning in New Jersey, except for the beautiful weather. A coworker came in and told me someone had phoned to say that a small plane had hit the World Trade Center - a terrible accident. Soon afterwards, we heard about the second plane and like everyone, knew at once that it was a terrorist attack. But who? Middle Eastern terrorists? Homegrown American maniacs? Something else? Nobody knew. What else was going to happen? Nobody knew.
I remember sitting at my desk trying to pray the Lord's Prayer, and getting stuck for about five minutes on "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". I had never realized before what an enormous demand that is...
As it turned out, I am only another bystander...nobody closer than a friend of a friend was killed. But for a long time afterward, I was haunted by the thought of all those people who got up that Tuesday slapping their alarm clocks just like me, took a shower and got dressed just like me, grabbed some coffee just like me, went to work just like me. And they will never come back.

I have become much more aware that life could end at any moment...so we should savor it as it passes, instead of sleepwalking. Also, I have become much more curious about Islam and Middle Eastern history and culture. I am still struggling to fit the people who could do such a thing into some understandably human context. Finally, it is very important to keep trying to approach everyone - all the other fragile lives around us - with love, not hate.

Remember that we were innocent victims. Remember that we rose magnificently to the challenge. Remember that we are commanded to forgive and love even people as evil as the men who planned the attack and hijacked the planes.

Oh, yes...I wore a small flag pin for several months, and as soon as I could get one had a flag on my car antenna until late June, when it began to fray. My immediate feeling about the sudden proliferation of flags was that this was a combination of national mourning and defiance...remember that back in September and October of 2001, especially as the anthrax cases continued, we had no idea how many more terrorists might be hiding among us. By early 2002, and continuing to the present, the flag became more of a symbol of the fragility and preciousness of civilization. No, I am not being some sort of stereotype of "USA perfect! Furriners no good!" jingoist...there are many other civilized countries in the world, and none are perfect...certainly we are not. But we were the ones attacked, and the people who attacked us stand for the death of civilization.