It’s Been 12 Years
This day, twelve years ago, I had class in the very same building that I will have class tonight. The same floor, a few classrooms away.
Twelve years ago, the word came to our room that a plane had hit one of World Trade Center buildings. I did not know just how serious it was until I went downstairs and heard the gravity in Dan Rather’s voice. Comforted a friend who father worked in one of the towers (and was not in it, thank God, as we learned later) and helped an ADPi sister try to figure out doing a blood drive- and finding out that the American Red Cross was overwhelmed with offers. Trying to do something. Trying to – to make it- something. Go away? Make it right? Something…
Events like these are hard for me to write about. Especially now with children, I especially think about the children left behind. How can you explain such hate to them, something that you never want them to understand?
Life comes full circle. I will be in the same building tonight that I was in that day when I found out. I was just a freshman, and I thought I could change the world. And in that day, our world was changed. One man, his hate, rained down upon us in fury. And we were changed. We still bear the scars.
God tells us to forgive, is what my minister would preach later. A World War Two vet stood up in church and cursed him out. How can we forgive? We can never forget.
Political policies were set in place, things that I think we now know might have been wrong were set forth in our fear. We were scared. We would fight. We would avenge.
And avenge we did, when Osama Bin Laden was finally killed. I cannot take glory in anyone’s death, but I must admit there was some patriotic pride. Was that wrong?
One man- one person set the wheels in motion to change the course of history.
Any time you think you can’t change the world for good, for better, I would tell you to look at this. This one man changed our whole world with the actions that he set forth.
He changed us all with his hate. The children of today know no world otherwise. We owe them more.
I want to claim our country back from him. Our world. Put my foot down and say no more- I will not let you and your hate put a shadow over us anymore.
Today I pray for peace. I pray for all of our children that they may know security. That they know we love them. I pray for those that were left behind, and for those who were taken from us- they were all somebody’s child. And I pray for our country and this world.
We will never forget.
Love to all y’all,
Molly
