To respond to a commenter who doesnt understand why 9/11 had such a strong, enduring, emotional impact on the American people: I was thirteen years old on September 11, 2001. That day was, for me and my peers, the equivalent of the Kennedy assassination for my parents generation. It wasnt just a sad thing that happened. It wasnt just that people died. It wasnt just a couple of really famous buildings that were destroyed. It was the day I learned that the world, that my world, is not a safe place. More than that, it was the day I learned what people are capable of in the face of tremendous fear. For all the big talk about how New Yorkers are rude, what I remember most about that day is how eager everyone was to help, even at great personal risk. How the first words out of everybodys mouths for a long time after was are you okay? On September 10, 2001, we were all still living in this fantasy world in which America was the only superpower, and that we were indestructible and undefeated. We had beaten the Nazis. We had beaten communism. Our economy was booming. What 9/11 really did was pop the bubble. It destroyed the innocence of the young. It destroyed the innocence of the old, who had grown comfortable in years of peace and good times. Really, two things happened. The first was that suddenly we were acutely aware of our fragility. The second is that suddenly we were acutely aware of what really matters: each other. You know, I still miss the twin towers. I do. They were so much more a symbol of the modern New York that I grew up in than our remaining, fussier looking skyscrapers. They were simple, and gritty, and ours, and losing them has permanently changed the identity of this city, and the identity of all those who live here and look at the skyline from time to time with the feeling that somethings missing. So to people who look at what happened that day and dont understand the magnitude of the significance of it when compared to wars, and terrorist attacks that have occurred elsewhere, and anything else that might have resulted in a larger body count, well, you can take your Saturday Night Fever, and your Empire State of Mind, and your vintage John Lennon inspired t-shirts and shove them right up your ass. You dont have the heart of a New Yorker anyway. Oh, and one more thing: get the hell out of my city.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 13:42:47 +0000
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