Just like many (most? all?) of my fellow citizens this morning, I paused to spend a few moments thinking about the events that happened eight years ago. Unbidden memories of the 'where' came rushing forward.
Where? In the Manana military housing area, on Oahu, Hawaii. As our neighbors started waking up shortly after it started there was a mass exodus. Some undoubtedly in response to urgent phone calls recalling them to their places of duty. Others, like Cyrilee, rising at their normal early hour, seeing the news and immediately heading toward their bases, knowing without being told, where they needed to be.
We've been told, for whatever reason, that we should view this day as a day of service. As I sit and think about those events from a few short years ago, and more importantly, life in these intervening years, my mind moves from honoring the victims, rescuers, and responders on that day to another group of people... those folks, especially the young folks, who joined the service (military) after 09/11/01. So yes, this should be a day of service...or more accurately, a day to honor service.
Often folks of my age and generation spend much idle chatting time lamenting the direction our society is heading. That the generation moving from youth to adulthood in these post 9/11 years have no sense of place or duty, only interested in having the hippest new smart-phone to text endless strings of opinion about who should be the next american idol.
I say the American Idol is all those kids who walked off that graduation stage, stood in front of a flag, raised their right hands, and told America, "This won't happen again. I will stand that watch, take up that challenge."
Full disclosure, I have a bias... our daughter was one of those. She is currently in her senior year at the U.S. Naval Academy. We are unwaveringly and immeasurably proud of her. While she has never stated that the events of 9/11 were the reason she joined , I would note that her facebook status update this morning simply reads..."9.11.01".
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Very well put Tim. I'm amazed at how our generation was looked on by previous generations as spoiled, ungrateful, reckless and for the most part just worthless. And now that we are the older more responsible generation, so to speak... looking back I think we did just fine. It's my hope that the kids that scare the crap out of us today will step up and make the right choices tomorrow. I'm proud of your daughter as well.
ReplyDeleteJim Johnson
Another thought. There were those of us who watched those terrible events unfold on that fateful day knowing that our lives had forever changed in America. And we vowed never to forget. Never to become complacent. Never to let our guard down. And now there are rumblings about pulling our troops out of Afghanistan and reducing military spending. Our military worldwide stand as guardians to protect our freedom and our lives. They sacrifice to draw that line in the sand and keep those who would harm us at bay. They keep the battle away from our own soil. I honor that. And I am a grateful American. I will never forget.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words.
I've finally reached the conclusion that the main job of teenagers is to horrify their parents. To be so different that the older generation has to reach the logical conclusion that the youngsters will never accomplish anything...then they grow up and accomplish lots.
This is probably the mechanism that nature uses to make sure human being keep advancing forward. If at their age they were the same as us at our age then nothing would ever advance.
Anon, Thank you for your thoughts and dedication to keeping alive the meaning we must keep in this day. It wasn't an assault on our buildings or transportation devices... it was an attempt to destroy the culture we have built as Americans.