dianabrunson.com

My Thoughts About 9/11 10 Years Later

Ten years ago tragedy struck, not just the twin towers, not only the United States, but the entire nation. We, as a people, have all changed in one way or another since then and I doubt if anyone old enough to remember has forgotten or will ever forget. Just google “9/11″.

If I wouldn’t have kept my daughter home from school that way when she said she didn’t feel good and if I hadn’t been fired the day before, things would have seemed like normal to me. At least until I heard about the 9/11 attacks. (The firing is another blog post.)

I didn’t like the sound of the alarm clock, so I had the timer on the tv set to turn itself on. I forgot to turn the timer off on the 10th, so the tv turned on bright and early the next morning. I didn’t hear it until the news broadcast was showing the scene of one of the airplanes crashing into the twin towers.

2001 was the first year that I started blogging. That was in March. I read blog posts from those who poured their hearts out that day. I left some comments, but I didn’t write about it. This is the first time. I don’t know how long I sat there at my desk in shock that September morning, or when the crying began that lasted most of the day.

There were times when I was tempted to turn the tv off and yet inside of me kept it on as the scenes were being shown over and over again and that’s just about all they talked about on the news. It was like there was no other news to report or it was all put to the side during this time.

The tragic events of 9/11 are still with the nation 10 years later. People continue to write about it and it would surprise me if someone wasn’t thinking about it every day. Such as a family member or friend who lost someone in horrific act of violence. Even silences have been broken.

Something changed in me since 9/11. It wasn’t immediate. The change happened gradually, day by day, month by month. I’m now more aware when someone is profiled because of the way they look or because of the way they are dressed.

Come to think of it, I don’t even remember being very aware of the phrases, “ethnic profiling” or “racial profiling”. Not until the day the twin towers crashed and crumbled onto the ground and onto all those people. The words prejudice and bigotry yes, which is bad enough, but profiling, not that I can recall. That is most likely because they are being used a lot more often since 9/11.

I know I shouldn’t judge, but it bothers me that innocent people are being treated with such hatred because of the senseless acts of violence to our nation.

I have a strong belief that everything happens for a reason and yet I question that belief when a massive number of people are killed. I won’t even ask why. Has that question been answered yet? Is there one ultimate answer to that question or are there a multitude of answers? Does it matter? Should it matter? To those who lost someone they love, I would imagine the answer to that might be an unequivocal “yes”

I’d like to say that there is always hope, because really, there is. However, I wonder if it’s possible in our lifetime for each one of us to not just think about having peace within, but actually living it. Being peace.

To end this hatred and the violence, to end the wars, we must begin with us. We must each end our own inner wars of hatred, bigotry, jealousy, envy, and so on. It takes each one of us to do this. If not now, then when?

Peace begins within.

(I’m working on it.)

Photo By cliff1066™