Eight Years Ago

I debated putting up a special post for 9/11. The thought of three thousand people killed still brings a lump to my throat, making it difficult to come up with anything to say. Even after eight years the day is fresh in my memory. I was at work when someone mentioned the plane crash in New York. I thought perhaps a small single engine plane had lost control. The truth and what would follow were (and in many ways still are) unbelievable.

To think that a group of people could, for whatever reason, agree to carry out such a plan boggles the mind. While they may not have expected the towers to fall, they knew hundreds would be killed. We looked for an explanation. Was it God’s judgment? Did we do something to someone to bring this on ourselves? How could someone hate us to this degree? We watched as some in other nations celebrated the attacks. I will never forget the painful news footage of Palestinian children cheering in the streets. We tried to understand but after eight years I doubt we have made much ground.

9/11 was the springboard to the “War on Terror,” a president claiming victory based on the fact that we were not attacked once again. I fear when all is said and done we will look at the erosion of our own Constitution in the name of security and wonder if it was a pyrrhic victory. Will we, in the long run, look at the cost in human life and wonder if we are hurting or helping our foe in pursuit of their goals? In the end will we find that the terrorist have won by initiating a complete unraveling of the American lifestyle?

Eight years ago: where are we now? Where are we headed? In two years when we come to the tenth anniversary, will we as a nation truly remember what happened?

See Also: “The War in Iraq and a Child’s Question”
“Time to Drop ‘War on Terror’”
“Five Years Since 9/11”