I was listening to a story on NPR yesterday concerning the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. The reporter was interviewing family members of the 9.11 victims, and after a few minutes, it became more than I could handle, and I had to turn the radio off. The pain and the suffering that these people are still enduring almost five years later was almost palpable. I found myself trying to imagine what they must be feeling, and I have to admit that I frankly couldn’t. I’m not certain that’s even possible.
The story also set me to thinking about something else. Here’s a question for you: Can you think of a day when you haven’t heard the words “9.11” or “terrorism”? I certainly can’t. 9.11.01 was almost five years ago, and yet it seems almost like yesterday. It’s part of our national thought process and conversation on a daily basis. With the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui reaching the death penalty phase, we have yet another opportunity to relive the pain, the horror, and the agony of the day. Another day, and yet more salt in the still-open wound.
What other historical event has managed to capture and monopolize the national consciousness as 9.11 has? What other historical event has caused such unimaginable pain and suffering and impacted such a wide swath of American society? If it’s impacting all Americans in this way, what must it be like for those in Washington and New York. Out here in the hinterlands, I have trouble wrapping my head around the scope of the tragedy. What must it be like for someone who was actually in Manhattan or at the Pentagon on that terrible day? I certainly cannot begin to even imagine what that must have been like.
In 1984, I flew out of JFK Airport in New York on a flight to Athens, Greece. The plane circled over Manhattan, and as the plan began to turn, I could look down and see the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. At the time, I marvelled at the sheer size of the towers. It was difficult to imagine and fully grasp the size and grandeur from the air, and though I never saw them from ground level, I imagine the towers would have evoked a similar reaction. To think that a terrorist attack could drop both towers and kill more than 3,000 people is almost beyond the capability of my imagination. And yet it happened - before our disbelieving eyes on national television on a beautiful Tuesday morning in September.
I wonder sometimes if we’ll ever be able to return to something resembling innocence, or whether we are forever locked in to this us-vs.-them, kill-them-before-they-kill-us mentality? Will we be forever dividing our world into “friends” and “enemies”, and will be constantly be at world against a real or perceived threat somewhere in the world? And will the pain and suffering ever end?
I wonder….
