Like those in my boomer generation who can remember where we were when we heard the news that John Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot, anyone older than a young child in 2001 can remember where they were when they heard that the twin towers had been struck by terrorist in New York city. Like the death of Kennedy and King it has become the defining event for another generation.
As Sunday approaches we are inundated with remembrances of the event. Over the summer I’ve been part of the Newton clergy contingent, along with the members of the Newton city staff and other folks from the community in planning a service for this coming Sunday. At each of our meetings there was a family member who had lost a loved one in one of the planes. At the last one, this person made a plea that we not call it an anniversary. Anniversaries they said are happy occasions and this is not a happy remembrance.
I’ve thought about this remark on and off since then because it raises the question of how should we remember this terrible day? It is certainly important to remember those who died and the heroic efforts of many of the rescuers who also died It is important to remember the families who still grieve and the children who have grown up without a parent. Our hearts still ache for all that senseless and tragic death.
But I think we also have to remember our country’s response and all the deaths that have followed because we have engaged in war in Iraq and Afghanistan. So many thousands of others have died, many of them innocent civilians because of the way our nation responded. Our nation engaged in torture in the name of pursuing the enemy for which we would criticize any other nation who engaged in it. Our grandchildren and great grandchildren will pay with their taxes for this on-going conflict which seems to have no end leading to difficult choices with regards to other more life giving purposes of our taxes.
Just as when someone we love dies, a healthy response is to remember the whole of who they were, the good, the bad, the funny, so it seems to me we should remember 9-11-01, mourning our dead, celebrating the heroism that ensued, and repenting our own part in the spreading of evil and terror.
