What DOES This Day Mean?

For those of you who DON’T know (and, from the way the media keeps reminding us, I figure there must be SOMEBODY), today is the seventh anniversary of the WTC and Pentagon attacks of 9/11/2001.

As I often do when I’m on break from work, when there are funnies there, I like to read them and then do the crossword. I saw the funnies today and read them. Nothing particular struck my fancy, they were all kind of mediocre. Then 9/11 even intruded into my funnies!

Our paper carries a strip called “On A Claire Day”. In today’s strip, the lead character Claire is standing at a crowded bus stop. In the first panel, she thinks “It’s 9/11 and no one seems to care.” In the second panel, she thinks “They’re all just going about their daily business… as if they’ve completely forgotten what this day means.” In the last panel, you see the thoughts of some of the other people at the bus stop… one is of one of the towers being hit, one is of Osama Bin Laden, the others are not clear pictures, although I think that one is of the Pentagon being hit.

First off, kudos to the creators of the strip, Carla Ventresca and Henry Beckett, for acknowledging that, even for those of us who don’t constantly TALK about 9/11 like Mayor Guiliani does, it is never far from our minds.

But I wonder… exactly what DOES this day mean? Think about it for a second.

…

I guess that it means something different to each of us. To me, having lost no one dear to me, it is no more or less important than 12/7/1941, 2/26/1993, 4/20/1999 and 4/19/1995. If you don’t know what these dates are, SHAME ON YOU and look them up.

To me, all of these attacks should serve as a wake-up call to Americans. NOT meaning that we should become more embroiled in unwinnable wars that have nothing to do with them as we did in Iraq, but more that, in this time more than ever, we need to be aware of our global actions and how they affect others. We need to be aware that we are no longer the untouchable heroes of the world. We are no longer the untouchable country, but are a part of the global community.

We also need to remember that, even with this list of attacks, we are still a DAMNED lucky country. We can send our kids to school without fear of someone blowing up their school buses. We do not, as the Israelis and Palestinians do, have to worry about a rocket or bomb going off in our neighborhoods at any moment of the day or night.

So, maybe just spend a few moments contemplating on this. Think PAST the war in Iraq, think PAST all of the crap that our government has laid at our feet about these attacks, and just think of what they mean to you, personally.

Peace.

Randal