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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Remembering 9/11


This year marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that took place in New York and in Washington, D.C. It was my junior year in high school and I remember that morning starting out pretty good for me. I even remember laughing at a couple of people during my first hour study hall period, and afterwards, I felt deeply guilty for having those feelings, since the events in New York had just happened. I didn't know about what had happened until an hour or so later, while I was waiting for my next class to start, and someone poked their head into the room and told me about a plan hitting one of the World Trade Center towers. I didn't know what to make of it, until class started and our teacher gave us the details of what was happening. After watching the news cast later on in one of my classes, a history class no less, I was in a daze and barely felt like playing tennis in my PE class.

Soon after the attacks, I stopped caring about it, because just seeing the horrific scenes, especially that of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center towerand the constant chatter regarding it all, made me sick to my stomach and simply made me hollow inside. I wanted to forget about it all, and just live my life as best as possible, in this new world of ours, not knowing if another horrific disaster was around the corner. I had to forget, because I couldn't get a proper sleep for many days. Before 9/11, the world to me was simply out there, a massive place. That logic soon changed and I laid in bed that night, listening for sirens or something else, wondering if Chicago, only 80 miles away, was next.

As time passed and life kept going, I too decided to move on to other things. That kept me going. Otherwise, I would have become a deeply paranoid soul.

Last year, I started to gain a renewed interest in what was taking place at Ground Zero, especially with the making of the 9/11 Memorial. I had hoped to be able to see what was taking place at the World Trade Center site when me and my wife visited New York City last year in August. But, the day we decided to visit lower Manhattan, it was a very rainy day and with the threat of rain and the chaos of traffic, people, and construction, I only got a glimpse of the site as we zoom passed in our taxi on our way to take a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. Me and my wife both vow to visit the 9/11 Memorial when we head back to New York City, and see the massive emptiness of where the towers once stood, thanks to the whole design of it.

Speaking of the 9/11 Memorial design, seeing how the water cascades down into the pit, with everyone's names along the edge, I though up of a much more moving design that would speak volumes to people. Instead of all the names along the top along the edge and water within the footprints, why not have them on the "walls" along the footprints, and the water gently flowing over and through the victims names and people be able to walk around those footprints and touch the wall. It would be a mix of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall and the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. But, I realize that it wouldn't be all that feasible, because it would involve having to put some sort of elevator/stair system to get all those people in that area and also destroy the sacred space of where thousands of lives were lost.

A pier leading to where the towers once stood.

I felt a loss of words as I stood there, looking at the picture, seeing the Twin Towers

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