9-11 Eight Years Later..

I won't forget that day...I can't. Because I wore the same uniform, learning how to do the same job, in a city far away. But we watched what happened and the aftermath the followed. Because of where we were, we became a part of it in some sense, our own city on alert for attack.

I can't forget the images; they are burned into my memory: people jumping out of the towers because the fire drove them out. A couple holding hands, falling to their deaths. Watching the towers collapse, realizing that before my very eyes, thousands of people were being murdered....including those who had gone in to save them. People fleeing the cloud from the collapse, finding refuge where they could. People helping others as they wept for and with each other. The flames at the Pentagon, the tail of a plan sticking out of it, bleeding victims. The burned slash of ground that had been United 93 bound for Pittsburgh.

I can still hear the sound of the firefighter's PASS devices, signaling that they weren't moving...and they were out of air. And no one could get to them.

All the people who went to work that day...and never made it home. The families still weep, for they will NEVER forget this day.

Perhaps the word "images" that I used is wrong, for these memories of our nation and our world aren't mere "images". They were reality. They ARE reality. We are still living in the aftermath and will continue to do so for a very, very long time. The memories we have of that day are imprinted upon our very souls, for who wasn't horrified? That's what we have to remember; not the images, but the REALITY.

This summer as I passed through and under New York City, I remembered 9/11 and I prayed. As I flew out of the Newark, NJ International Airport, I looked around at my fellow passengers and I remembered those who had begun their morning in the same way...and ended their lives a few minutes after takeoff when they slammed into the World Trade Center.

Today we remember the cowardly attacks that took so many innocent lives, and we mourn. We pray for them, for their families...and we remember that we should never, never forget.

Eternal Rest grant unto them O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Amen.

I highly recommend that you watch this very best of memorials, which I found on Happy Catholic's blog a few years ago.