Just an Ordinary Day

It was an ordinary day where I lived in the United States.  I woke up, got ready for work, arrived at work.  I signed onto my computer and worked on a project.

It was ordinary, until it wasn't.

September 11, 2001.

Today should be an ordinary day.

My spouse and I will get up.  Have breakfast.  My spouse has an appointment today.  It's just another day.

Today is the 24th anniversary of a day when some 3,000 people died in several terrorist attacks. 

We've reached the point where September 11 is only the day on the calendar between September 10 and September 12.   When someone makes an appointment for September 11, or mentions something they are doing on September 11, our mind doesn't catch on the date for a moment. That isn't a bad thing, but people of my generation will remember 9/11 for the rest of our lives.

But about one third of the people living in the United States weren't alive, or were too young to understand what was happening. That includes many teachers.

 How do we teach the importance of 9/11 to that generation?  How do we give them context?  How do we make them care?  Their 9/11 was the COVID epidemic.  Something that happened 24 years ago has become ancient history.

But not for my generation. 

I remember that evening, too, sitting with my preteen son in front of a computer and reading headlines from newspapers all over the world.  It was front page news everywhere, our American tragedy.  Now, newspapers die everyday and we are connected by social media, something we could not have imagined on September 11, 2001.

My son, who is in his 30's, remembers, too.

For our grandchildren, perhaps they will ignore a plaque in the lobby of their high school honoring the alumni who died that day.  This is the plaque in the lobby of my high school with 11 names of alumni who died that day.   But, more likely, they will have their own way of remembering, perhaps the way we who were not alive for Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) still remember and honor that day.

One of the names on that plaque in my high school is Christian Regenhard.  He was the youngest New York City fire fighter to die on 9/11. He was one of those who ran to danger, making it possible for others to escape and live another day.

Of the 11 people who went to my high school that died that day, two of them left pregnant spouses.  This is the story of one of the children later born, one of the so-called Children of 9/11.

Yes, we who remember, remember September 11, 2001 in different ways. 

My late childhood best friend remembered going to lunchtime concerts on the grounds of the World Trade Center during the summer.  Her husband worked in the area.  On that fateful day, her husband witnessed one of the towers fall but he made it out of Manhattan, covered in so much dust that my friend didn't recognize him when he showed up on their doorstep that afternoon.  

I visited Ground Zero in August of 2002 with my spouse and son.  It is a visit I will never forget.

My father in law was born on a September 11 (although he was no longer with us on that day.)  

So, today is just an ordinary day.  But still, at 8:46 am, I will remember. 

 I hope future generations, in some way, will remember, and apply that learning in their lives, too.