9/11: Eight Years Later

[IndianFan]

Eight Years Later: Have We Forgotten?
Posted 9/10/2009 11:40 PM CDT

"Honey," she said over the phone.  "Something has happened." 

"What do you mean?" I asked my wife.

"I don't know.  Something has happened in New York City.  Turn on the radio."

Driving up Highway 59 in east Texas, I caught the faint broadcast of KTRH.  In a what seemed like a "War of the Worlds" broadcast, a gripping story of disaster, heroism, and unspeakable foreboding unfolded. 

Each of us can tell the story of where we were on that fateful September 11.  I need not replay these events for they are forever burned in our minds.  These indeed will not be forgotten.

What is easily forgotten, however, was the incredible sense of a nation pulling together after this loss.  We stood in vigils with candles in our hands.  We prayed together openly.  We engaged perfect strangers in conversations.  For a brief, shining moment, America was one.

Across the airwaves today was replayed the news that our nation is divided on healthcare, cap and trade, Afghanistan, and a presidential speech in public schools.  Eight years later, faint is the single pulse that brought us together in the horrific aftermath of 9/11. 

"Things fall apart," Yeats intones in his Second Coming. "The center cannot hold."  Maybe the poet is right.  But, maybe not.

Perhaps, a rebirth can take place.  The center can be once again be found when we lay hold again on the brotherhood we found eight years ago.

For the victims in those ill-guided flights, the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon...

For the families and friends of these victims...

For the nation and world who wrapped their arms around each other...

May we not forget.