I Miss 9.12
Written by Andrea Dupper, Marketing Manager
9.12
We all know where we were. We all know what we felt. We all see the images over and over. We all suffered heart break, loss, and grief that day. We all lost something or someone. A little piece of every American was ripped away, the day the towers fell, the day people forced a plane down, the day our country was under attack. We are all haunted by 9.11.
Now, twenty years later, all I want to think about is 9.12. Yes, the day the United States really felt united. The day we checked on our neighbors, the day we called that family member we hadn’t talked to in years. 9.12 we showed the entire world, we were a nation full of compassion. Old Glory never flew prouder on neighborhood streets.
As our televisions were flooded with images of death and debris, we sought out the heroes. We all wanted to help. We lined up at blood banks to donate for the victims. We searched out ways to build up our community, to lift each other’s spirits.
I never want another 9.11, but I sure do miss what happened on 9.12 and for months on end. We hugged strangers, just because they looked like they needed, or we needed it! We were AMERICANS before we were rich or poor, upper or lower class, Jewish or Christian, Republican or Democrat.
There was a shortage of American flags in stores because they were being flown everywhere, in every neighborhood, as far as the eye could see. We actually stood united.
Now, 20 years later, we are more divided than I ever remember in my life. Right vs Left, vax vs un vaxxed, white vs black vs brown vs yellow. Gay vs straight. Conspiracy theorists vs. the woke. We’ve done a shitty job honoring the people we lost on 9.11. We’ve tossed aside those promises to be defend our fellow man. And we didn’t just do it as a people, our government has gone to shit and forgotten 9.12 as well.
I encourage you, in honor and to honor the tragedy of 9.11 on this twenty-year commemoration of one of the most horrific days for America, to remember who you were on 9.12.