Nine Eleven

There are a few moments in our lives that will impact us in such a way that the immediate direction we are headed takes a drastic detour and your ideas, philosophies, beliefs, habits, and routines can change in such a way that you begin to question them all.  Things can happen that when they do, they leave an engraved mark in your memory that never leaves you and is as clear in your mind when you remember it as it was the day it happened.  It could be the birth of a child, a marriage, or even a death.  These things change us and also mold us. 

On September 11, 2001 I woke up like any other day to get ready for work.  After dropping my daughter off at school, I went in to my job at one of restaurants I ran here in San Antonio.  While checking on my employees, running weekly numbers, and serving customers, I remember a young lady who came in and while taking her food to go she said "did you all here about that plane that ran in to the Trade Tower in New York?"  My first response was, "no I didn't, so much going on here in San Antonio I can't worry about New York."  We smiled and she left.  I went to the back and turned on the radio and heard the news she was referring to.  At first, it wasn't a concern other than the clear tragedy of lives lost.  Then.....a second plane flew in to the second tower....and everyone listening and watching on t.v. knew our lives would be changed forever.  I gathered some things and left the store.  I told the team I would return and advised my managers to be cautious and prepared.  I left and went home to see how much things would change.  I watched for hours and many others.  I could not believe this, terrorists have attacked us and lives have been lost.  At that moment, I remember getting something to drink out of my refrigerator and I turned to watch the t.v. and then it happened.....the first building collapsed...then the second.  I could not believe my eyes and I began to shed tears, there, alone in my living room.  Thinking about my family, my daughter, and my friends.  I had friends in New York....were they in the tower or around the area?  Was family of friends I had here in the tower or in the area?  So many questions raced in my mind and I had no answers, no comfort, no clue what was going on but I did know this.....we would never be the same. 

Since then, 11 years later, we have changed.  We are more prideful in our country.  We are more cautious in our actions and words in public.   Also, every year, on September 11th, we are all united and remember what happened and where we were on that day.  For 24 hours, we are one.  We have changed......and most of the change has shown our true character.  We hate with greater passion.  We profile with greater levels of disregard.  We have gone back to our "clicks" as it relates to familiar likeness of each other.  We attack one another with greater anger.  We disregard with greater cost and a greater lack of sympathy.  We complain with less resolve, and we react with less passion.  What do I mean?  We have gotten worse in our own dealings with one another and the direction we have been detoured to after 9/11/01 has caused us to get lost in a frenzy of streets with turns and signs and in many regards, we have taken a street that, rather than move us forward around the detour and ahead of the mess, we find ourselves going backwards. 

How do we return?  How do we take a turnaround and get back to the place of forward progress?  We remember...not just what happened on 9/11, but what happened before that, since, and because.  How great did you feel to see American's coming together like NEVER before?  How good did it feel to walk in to a store and you were received with love because you were an American?  As good as it felt, we must remember what it means to be an American....and sadly, most don't.  Being an American is much more than BBQ's, sports games, and greed.  (yes...)  To be an American is to remember how we started.  A group of foreigners left their country and came here to get a way from the previous way of life because they did not agree with it and they establish this idea to exist for all others who did not agree and would abide by the laws of freedom.  They created a system out of a belief that there is more than one way to do things and freedom was greater than greed and that all those who come here have the right to obtain this belief.  A belief that no one was greater than the next and that government would work for the people and help the people in order to sustain an equality and opportunity for success.  Somewhere along this journey we can clearly see the detour started way before 9/11.  What was so special in the aftermath of this tragic event is that for a moment, for those few days that follow, it was not the detour that changed us, it was the realization that the road we were on, the detour from our past, finally brought us back to the original road created for us to follow.  We were off the detour and on the road called America.  The problem is this, we were on the detour for so long that the original road seemed so out of place and we determined collectively that we were in fact, lost....so we went backwards and got back on the detour.  This is where we stand now.  What we must do is find our way back to that road we found after 9-11-01 and rather than be afraid of loving one another.  Rather than feel like our humility is weakness.  Rather than think differences make us better or worse than the next.  Rather than hate just because we don't understand or take the time to....rather than remain lost...we must embrace our differences, embrace our humility, embrace the thirst to learn so we can embrace the foundation of our country...and that foundation is the belief of God.  It is in everything we do.....but covered up by the greed in which we do it.  WE must realize that to be an American is to be the melting pot of the entire world.  Made up of so much and able to offer so much because we are able to embrace so much.  To be an American is to stand on the word of God that all are equal, no one is greater than HE that sent you.  To be humble and not boastful and most of all....to be the hand someone else needs to pull them out of the situation they are trying to change.

Nine Eleven taught us so much....can we embrace what we learned?  Can we remember what we were doing on that very day when our detour ended and we got lost on the right track....when we got lost in the love we had for each other and the support of one another, doing what we were created to do....be the difference.

Be Blessed