I don’t know where to start with this post so I’ll link to Leonard Slatkin conducting the BBC orchestra on September 15, 2001 and follow it with a link to a post I wrote last year called The America We Knew.
Been a rough day here in the U.S. as we saw another school shooting and the political assassination of a man I disagreed with on almost every issue.
Some of those disagreements are so fundamental it negates the good he might have done on the few things we agreed upon.
But none of that merits his execution. None of that merited murdering him and that is what happened. It was wrong and I condemn it.
I condemn those who celebrate it and those who say it is a sign to take up arms and go after those they disagree with.
The terrorists who hijacked our planes and murdered 3,000 planes are no different to me acted in the same fashion as this person. They used violence to try to silence and intimidate others.
How can I ignore those who lost their lives on 9/11 and not acknowledge the similarity in political violence.
What Do I Tell My Children?
I was 32, married and a father when the towers went down. I remember watching my son build little towers with blocks, knock them down and then start over.
When he started kindergarten 9/11 was still a relatively fresh wound for the nation. I remember asking the teachers if the school would discuss it and what they would say.
I remember wondering what they do at my nephew’s school in New Jersey where they undoubtedly would have people who lost someone or knew someone who was lost.
I remember that awful day wondering if my oldest friend was at work at Cantor Fitzgerald when the towers were hit or if he had made it back to LA.
Couldn’t reach him for hours.
I remember listening to my parents and inlaws talk about it when they checked in with us. Remember thinking they must have some sort of wisdom because the twenty five years between Dad and I had to count.
And now I realize he was 58 and mom was 57.
I am 56, they weren’t old even if they seemed like it. I remember thinking the world had changed and talking to my grandparents about what Pearl Harbor felt like.
I remember various times throughout the years of parenting my own children how careful and deliberate i was in conversation about 9/11 and other big moments. I didn’t want to sugarcoat what happened but I didn’t want to scare them unnecessarily.
This wasn’t the America or the world I knew and I expressed that.
But today made me wonder again if I have been wrong about the America I thought I knew.
Did I Fool Myself?
The kids have seen quite a bit over the past twenty some years they have been around. Much of it has been good but there have been things like the Tree of Life shooting and October 7 alongside way too many school shootings.
I think about what I heard about growing up. MLK and RFK were assassinated less than a year before I was born. My parents were in college when JFK was murdered and I was in 6th grade when John Hinckley Jr tried to kill Reagan.
So I was familiar with political violence. Some of it I knew because I learned about it and some I experienced but it felt different.
It felt less volatile than now and whether that is because I didn’t experience all of it first hand or for some other reason is open for debate.
Maybe the country has been and is far more violent and volatile than I thought. Maybe I was naive and oblivious and the bipartisanship I saw wasn’t what I thought. Maybe I was wrong, it wouldn’t be the first time nor will it be the last.
We’re going to have to muddle through the current time and figure out what we want things to look like and focus on what kind of country we hope to be.
I hope that we try to be more like the quote below and that we don’t celebrate the murder of people we disagree with.
What I know for certain is this. Twenty-four years ago 3000 people didn’t know this would be their last night on earth and that we have the privilege of using that knowledge as a reminder to try to do something to make the world better.
If you are interested in past posts please click here.
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