This day nine years ago, I was sitting at my desk at work, reading a chart. A coworker came in and said she had heard that a plane had flown into one of the WTC towers. A short while later, we learned about the second tower, followed by the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania. I cried a lot that day, and on the the days that followed. I could never quite place why. I didn't know any one personally affected by the tragic events of the day, but for some reason, I was deeply stirred.
My husband and I were trying to figure out what it is about tragic events that make them so indelibly marked on our psyche. Our grandparents had Pearl Harbor, our parents had the JFK assassination, we have the events of 9/11.What is it that we have such a need to remember?
We came to the conclusion that it is the one comminality we all have that marks these events for us. Certainly, we are more different than we are alike. Race, creed, religion, ethnicity...we are a myriad of people. I've been exposed to that diversity more in the past three months of living in New Jersey than in the 30-plus years I lived in Wisconsin. It has been nothing if not a culture shock. My home town was not what you would call a vast ocean of diversity. Milwaukee was a closer fit to the bill, but it's nothing like what I've encountered since I've moved here. And Rutgers, though only a small part (shocking, I know, but the population of Rutgers is less thatn 1% of the entire population on New Jersey), displays it just as well.
But, aside from all that, we have one thing. We're all people. Yes, it's basic, but it's the one thing we all have in common. The lowest common denominator, as it were.
On this day, does it matter what made those who were lost different? When we look back, do we count the numbers by religion or race? No, because it doesn't matter. What matters is that they were people with families and friends. I think it is for that reason that I cried. And that is what I think we need to remember.
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