It’s been nearly nine months since that unforgettable morning which changed our lives forever. Although we’ve been trying our best to revert back to our normal lives, the constant barrage of anti-terrorist efforts strewn across every news medium on the spectrum continue to make this an unlikely goal. Up until this point, I’ve made it a point to avoid the topic, to preserve comedic integrity or something like that, but with the coming of the Independence Day weekend and an undeniable sense of patriotism that I’ve never seen before, I think that I can finally put down some words to describe my interpretation of the events of Black Tuesday.
Even though this is technically supposed to be a humor column, the serious nature of today’s topic has convinced me to switch into an ‘editorial mode’ in order to show the proper respect where it is deserved. If it’s a true gut-buster that you’re after, tune in next week when we’ll be back to the obscenities and fart jokes which you’ve all become accustomed to…
Freedom was something that I’d never really thought much about before September 11, 2001. The only “war” that had even taken place during my life had been over in a matter of days, halfway around the world, so the idea that we were ever in any danger was non-existent. Hell, I was more concerned about getting mugged or jumped in my own little community than I was about any foreign affairs! I’d attended the respective parades for Memorial Day and the 4th of July every year and even marched in them a while back, but I didn’t really understand what we were celebrating. My parents and their parents understood because they’d experienced attacks on our freedom, but you just can’t expect someone to truly understand its value until it’s been jeopardized…
“You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone,” if you will.
Looking back on that Tuesday morning, it reminded me most like a trip through the eyes of Hollywood’s biggest directors. The day started out resembling some sort of twisted comedy because frankly I didn’t believe that any of it was for real. I’m sure anyone it their right mind would consider it to be grossly inappropriate, but the only way that I could make any sense of the whole situation was to simply assume that it was a joke. That’s right – a small plane crashes into huge skyscraper in Manhattan – it has to be a joke, right? But that comedy quickly shifted into an action/adventure tale, and then to one of pure horror as the details began to unfold…
I remember going home for lunch and desperately scrambling to find more information about what was happening. Turning on the television, I was presented with 32 channels straight out of the box-office smash Independence Day, only Will Smith was nowhere in sight to make it all better. Every single channel showed either pictures of the White House, the Pentagon or the World Trade Center, all flipping between before and after shots and displaying inlays of the other locations. Tickers rolled across the bottom of the screen attempting to bring the world up to speed, but there was just too much to be said to fit it all into a 30-second repeating phrase.
Diverting to my old friend, the Internet, I hoped that I’d be able to actually find some answers and I was finally able to get the details I’d been looking for, up to a point at least. The major wire services were able to let me in on the facts that simply weren’t being broadcasted alongside the panic coming from most news mediums – three planes had crashed into major landmarks and a 4th collision was avoided, it was assumed that someone from the Middle East was responsible, and the entire nation was under lockdown. Everyone was worried about what was going to happen next and life in these United States pretty much stopped that afternoon. As the end of the day came, talks about major state colleges and universities closing to avoid campus riots and violence made me begin to wonder about the true intentions of these attacks…
We were all taught in our early educational days that The United States of America is a country build upon the melting pot concept, which basically explains that our own culture is comprised of the combined cultures and ideologies of each and every person who has come here, for whatever reasons, from other countries around the world. The diversity which is attained by this concept is just one of the freedoms that make our country so great – the freedom to be different from your neighbor and still peacefully co-exist … but what would happen if someone wished to exploit this idea – by creating a scapegoat? When I returned home that evening, I turned on the news to learn of threats which had already been made to Americans with Arabic backgrounds and it was a little bit harder trying to sleep that night, knowing that they had not only damaged us physically, but also mentally by turning us against ourselves.
As I woke up the next morning, I could’ve sworn that I’d heard sirens going off and I wondered what had actually gone on during the last six hours while I had been pretending to sleep. Not surprisingly, though, my small hometown was still entirely in one piece and the nation was focused upon New York City. I probably watched more live coverage of NYC during that week than I’d watched of television in general the entire month.I can’t say as though I was tuning in just to keep up on my facts, though – in fact, the entire scene was fascinating to me and I’m still not entirely certain why. I watched the rescue crews digging threw piles of what appeared to be nothing but rubble, yet they continued on for days with the hopes of finding just one more survivor. I watched the stories from the families involved and those whose loved ones had been working at the time – the tale of the workers from Cantor-Fitzgerald, whose offices were nearly at the top of the Center, was quite possibly one of the saddest stories I had ever heard, and yet I couldn’t simply turn it off … it was the most encouraging thing I’d seen that week because it told me exactly what this country is really made of – heroes. Every second I watched that television, I saw more and more patriotism shining and I knew that we were going to make it through this…
The next several days, and weeks, and even months were filled with news pertaining to the war and terrorism and various other topics which nobody really likes to talk about. Entertainers finally came back into the spotlight in an attempt to reclaim a normal life, but things would never be the same again. Around every corner stood the threat of anthrax or suicide bombers; rumors always lingered of larger and even more devastating attacks to come in the near future, but we tried to get back into the swing of things because “If we allow terrorism to affect our daily lives, we we’re letting the terrorists win…” and I’m not exactly sure which is the most accurate, but I think that all of the following apply:
- Americans are generally very competitive by nature and hate to see their home team lose.
- We’ve all got a little patriotism in us somewhere, even if it takes a tragedy such as this to bring it to the surface.
- Man is basically a compassionate species and our society in particular encourages us to embrace our fellow man in support, defense and vengeance when necessary.
When someone asks me about patriotism today, I remember back to September 11, 2001 and watch as the scenes pass through my head, both the good and the bad. I remember a nation that was wounded together, a nation that healed together and a nation that fought back together – what I see is a portrait of America … freedom. Patriotism makes sense to me now because I know that even though we have a great deal to lose, we’re not going to lose it – ever. Some of us celebrate it with parades and fireworks, some by flying our nation’s flag and placing bumper stickers on our cars and some by visiting the graves of friends and family who have passed on – we each show our patriotism – our remembrance – in our own special ways…
On this 4th of July and every day, I urge you … please remember.