Marc Rivers, Author

I don’t normally perform any sort of observance or commemoration of the September 11^th attacks, but seeing as how this year is the 25^th anniversary (already?!), perhaps it’s worth jotting some thoughts down.

Obviously, everything changed that day. The world we thought we knew was shattered and the one that replaced it now seems deeply entrenched. My parents’ generation all had as their landmark moment where they were and what they were doing when they learned that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. For me and my generation, we all know in stark, vivid detail, what we were doing on the day of September 11, 2001.

I won’t bore (or re-traumatize) you with the specific sequence of events from my perspective. Suffice to say that it was the most surreal day I’d ever experienced. I still reflect at times on how everyone at school—teachers and fellow students alike—processed what we were seeing. My fourth period math teacher was the only one who refused to deviate from the lesson plan that day, as though any of us could bring ourselves to listen to or care about trigonometry while an unthinkable tragedy was unfolding.

There were overreactions, of course. Some students were confident that terrorists would crash a plane into the tallest building in the city I lived in and I had to take comfort in the 99.99% chance that, no, foreign terrorists are probably not preoccupied with Nashville, Tennessee. Just wouldn’t make the same statement as New York and Washington, you know?

The fact that I can remember a world before 9/11 (and before social media and smartphones) is still one that I often take for granted. I do sometimes find myself socializing with people younger than me who wouldn’t remember that world as well as I do. And, just to hurt my own feelings even more (and perhaps yours as well), I realize that there are people out there now earning Master’s degrees who weren’t even born when it happened!

The aftermath of it all also gave me the chance to watch the real-time rise of the surveillance state and the swift erosion of personal privacy. The apparatuses installed as a response to those attacks are the same ones now being weaponized (more than before) against anyone the current government dislikes or fears themselves. Again, for many people, this is simply the way the world is and therefore must have always been. But it wasn’t always like this!

We have so far prevented any additional foreign attack that comes anywhere near this unthinkable tragedy in terms of scale, and for that I’m grateful. I can only imagine how horrific it must have been to live in or near New York City at the time or to have lost someone you knew in the attacks (whether in NYC, Washington, or Flight 93).

But I also quietly mourn for the world that once was and will likely never be again. I don’t want to be hyper-vigilant against my neighbors. I don’t want to hate people with a different skin color than mine or who speak a different language from me. I don’t want to assume that every stranger has bad intentions for me or hates me because of where I live. And I certainly don’t want to think that just because my country was the victim of this terrible act that it justifies everything they have done in response, either at home or abroad.

Nearly 3,000 people died in the immediate surprise attacks. Countless more in New York died from health complications arising from the collapse of the Twin Towers. This nation suffered a scar on its psyche that will never heal. (And not just the United States, but many other free nations who lost the illusion of peace, as well.) This nation and the world transformed nearly overnight in response to the very possibility that something like it could happen again. For those people, and for that past world, I weep.

This should be a solemn day of remembrance, one for reverent reflection and quiet mourning. If you’re reading this, and you’re a member of that younger generation of which I spoke, ask someone older what times were like before our world changed overnight. Please understand that the psychological wounds from this event run DEEP. And then, when you’ve learned something new, think of ways you can improve the world around you, one person at a time (even if that person is you).

Don’t give in to hate or fear. Don’t allow paranoia to guide your decisions. Don’t despair that there is no hope for humankind or that we can’t ever love or trust our neighbors again. Believe that we can and take those first steps to make it happen.

Be safe, all of you. Take care of each other. Until next time,

-Marc