September 11, 2002 - 11:08 p.m.
Note: This is the third in a five-day series on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, what we felt then and what we've learned in the year since.
Happy Patriot's Day.
Doesn't sound right, does it? Today is not happy. Today is not a holiday.
An interesting question was raised in my history class today: How will we think of Sept. 11, 2020? 2040? 2060?
Will this date mean as much to us in 58 years, or will "Patriot's Day" fall into the back of our collective consciousness?
Will it still be an opportunity for us to reflect on our freedoms and remember the tragedy of 2001, or will it be an excuse for furniture stores to have another sale?
Will we mark it as we did today, with prayer services, tributes, and quiet reflection? Or will we instead have barbecues and three-day weekends?
Will Patriot's Day be moved to the obligatory Monday observance?
Think about it: When was George Washington ACTUALLY born? How about Abe Lincoln? It wasn't on a Monday.
Columbus did not land on a Monday.
By slapping a name on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, we run a risk of trivializing what happened.
What happened a year ago today will not be remembered by future generations as dramatically as we remember it.
It's just the same as the way I don't get emotional when I hear about Pearl Harbor, or John F. Kennedy's assassination.
My grandmother knows where she was Dec. 7, 1941. My mother remembers where she was Nov. 22, 1963 (on her way to a college class, much like where I was on Sept. 11, 2001). My dad remembers JFK's assassination, too. He was a freshman in high school.
But Sept. 11 will become a part of history. To those of us that watched it unfold, it will be vivid no matter how long ago it happened. To my children, it will be a line of text in a history book, or a documentary, or a series of photographs.
We may visit the "Ground Zero Memorial" in a few years, whatever that ends up being, but I don't think it will move them any more than I was moved when I saw the eternal flame at Kennedy's grave.
But I think that's part of the healing process, too. We, as a culture, have encountered a shock. That shock will fade away into the new reality it is already slowly becoming, and I'll be okay with that.
Will I get upset at Sept. 11 sales? Yeah, probably. If I'm helping my children with history homework some day, and I discover a picture of the twin towers blowing up, will I still feel the lurch in the bottom of my stomach that I did last year? You bet.
But I'll also understand that in order for this country to keep going, the pain and terror of Sept. 11 must fade away into the background.
It must become a line in history. Our children must distance themselves from it to understand it better than we ever will.
We must -- and we will -- move on.
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