The Day after the World Stopped Turning 9/12/2001

I remember waking up as a ten year old, feeling like the world was different. I couldn’t understand what was different, but the world felt a whole lot smaller. My father came home that next morning and was setting back out to help. The street was quiet. The news had a different tone. School was not a thing. My mom went back to work as a nurse and I sat with our neighbors. It was quiet Wednesday. 

In stores across the United States, people were compassionate, they cared. Neighbors hugged their neighbors, people came together to support families, to care for those hurting, and to unite behind the first responders that put their lives on the line and those who lost their lives. It was a different America. I distinctly remember buying white bedsheets for the neighborhood to paint American flags on. Everyone in the neighborhood was raising flags, wearing red, white and blue, and helping those in need. There was a unity. America was unified like never before. We were willing and wanting to fight for those lives taken from us and to keep people we had never met safe. We felt the urge to come together to protect, to love, and fight against terrorism. 

It was the type of tragedy that forced people to look deep within and question how they treated their neighbors and how they could make America strong again. A tragedy we promised we would never forget. That promise faded as America has hit new challenges. The promise to never forget was not a promise to not forget the tragedy, but a promise to not forget the unity that we had for the months after 9/11. As I look at 2020 and all that has unfolded, it is painfully obvious that we have forgotten that we are all Americans fighting for freedom and safety. I see so much hatred daily, people screaming about masks, fake news, Republicans , Democrats, All Lives Matter vs Black Lives matter. A country so divided that the cracks in the foundation seem so large that nothing can repair them. In the analogy of a house, this would be a total rebuild. Tear it down, build brand new. We have forgotten that freedom and justice for all means ALL. Not whoever you like. It means justice for people stopped unlawfully, for those killed, for those fighting for a better life. Justice. It means freedom to anyone who seeks freedom, immigrants (like most of our ancestors), American citizens whose rights continually seem to be infringed upon, and those who seek political asylum. Freedom. When did we become the country who judges its people? A country so quick to take a life? A country that has forgotten to fight for the underdogs? A country that decided to go so far back to their roots of persecuting people because of their skin or their beliefs are different? 

I am often embarrassed that we are reliving the worst parts of our history right now, and most people haven’t learned from it. I would love to go back to the unity I felt 19 years ago. And trust me, I know it wasn’t perfect, Muslim Americans were persecuted by almost every American out of fear, so let’s change that. Let’s take fear out of decisions. Take the fear out of interactions. Replace the fear with love, compassion, and understanding. We are all so different, we are more than our skin colors, we are more than our social media, we are more than our ancestors. We are more. We are American. We are strong. We are different. We are free. We should love our neighbors, we should reserve judgement for a higher being, and we should unify for a better America. An America we can be proud of again. Not one willing to give up our freedom out of fear.