The day the world stood still

This post is not part of the Best Kept Secrets of the OR series. This is a remembrance of the day the world stood still.

September 11, 2001.

The day that the world stood still. If only for a moment in time.

It is strange to think that an event that changed our world has no reference for the latest generations.

Last year’s post for 9/11 was talking through it for the generation that watched the JFK assassination on television.

This year’s 9/11 post will be trying to explain what it was like for the younger generations.

The one’s who didn’t live through it.

Who have only learned of it through textbooks. And that is if their state hasn’t banned history textbooks.

But September 11, 2001 was a day that took us outside of ourselves.

It was a date that allowed us to come together as a society. Even if only for a moment.

The parallels are there for today as well.

9/11 was less than 10 months after George W. Bush took up residence in the White House as the 43rd president after a nail biter of an election.

Our elections haven’t gotten any easier. Or easier on the nails.

But for the moment and for months after 9/11 America spoke with one voice.

And that voice said “No.”

We would not disappear.

We would not bow to the pain of the the 2,977 dead.

2,753 people died at the World Trade Center Twin Towers collapse.

40 people died on a plane outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

343 people died at the Pentagon.

Many valuable lessons were learned that day.

We would learn that not everyone is a friend.

We would learn that not eveyrone is a foe.

We would learn the value of helping others through the darkness.

We would learn fear.

Many lessons were learned after the events that this attack unfolded. I won’t get into them here becasue this shouldn’t be political. It should be a remembrance of what and who we lost.

However…

We learned that we would endure.