I rarely ever think of dark times, simply because I feel it prohibits the soul from moving forward. There is one dark time that I can never forget, not even as I sit typing this entry on a PC keyboard in the cold, Amsterdam, night. I wonder if I still remeber simply because the impact was so massive that I, still, just can't believe it happened. 9/11 was the day that America as a whole became vulnerable, a day that would determine a long course of action that's been considered highly debatable, if not completely incorrect.
I was sitting in my car listening to the radio when suddenly all the music stopped and the news began frantically coming in. I drove to my mother's home and witnessed in horror as the Twin Towers slowly fell. I remebered 1993 and the attempted bombing and thought '' they did it this time, fuckers.'' I remember explaining to my 5 year old boy that the bad people who did that would be caught. The sense of unison hurt and unity that served as a sheet was unlike anything I had ever seen or felt. That day was the day America fell, and there were no answers.
As I saw the many shots of frightened victims falling to their death I remembered tears falling in silence. Our fellow citizens had fallen and lives, countless lives were being affected in a manner that could only be described as horrific. Yes, this was the first time someone decided to walk into our property line and try to make us crumble. I could hear the comparisons to Pearl Harbor, but this was nothing at all like Pearl Harbor. The average citizen had been sent into a panic, and the mighty power was left questioning "What next?''
A presidency in its infancy was tasked with finding the guilty and making them pay. It was during that week that there were no Republicans, no Democrats, just Americans united in one tragedy that affected the entire country, the entire world. The various weeks that followed there was a cry for war, justice, and no face to go after. As the years passed there would be war, a recession, heightened fear, prejudice where there need not be prejudice, and doubt. The US was made to fear an enemy without a face. The theory that 9/11 was an inside job, and the many near tragic, and tragic events that followed would only strengthen the fear.
I'll never forget 9/11 and I'll never forget how that one tragic event served as a showcase for the value of unity in the face of tragedy. It did not matter if you were black, white, atheist, it only mattered that you were willing to stand behind the fallen. Yes, this was a hard time, but it was the kind of time that saw no gray areas, just the colors of unity, and bravery. Try not to remember the doubt, the hate, the tragedy, wars, loss, remeber what you can gain and what makes us a damn great society.
America is no Eutopia, but we live in a world where there is no perfect place. Our society and democracy is ideal in thought and imperfect in practice, but it is still a society worth protecting, and standing up for. 9/11 was a dark time, perhaps the darkest ever, but we managed to see light again, so never forget. Never forget the actions of a few derranged animals do not represent the majority people. Never forget that in the end, even a considerable number of animals do not have enough power to break the one key feature that keeps us up, the spirit of freedom.
