Remembrance of a Day in September

From the Publisher’s Wife
The morning began very early for me because I was making a solo journey to the farm for a much anticipated visit to my mother and Willie. Part of the fun planned was a garden tea party at the home of my aunt. All of us were instructed to wear our best summer hats.
I remember the delight of the crystal-clear air as I drove to Philadelphia. It seemed a blue-sky day which I was certain was a good omen for my trip. Then my cellphone rang and shattered the peacefulness of my reverie.
It was our son, Dennis, calling from Wildwood Crest telling me something is happening. “Turn on your radio!” That was the first word I had that the world for all of us Americans was forever changed. The date was Sept. 11, 2001. Turning on the radio did not answer my questions as to what was wrong because the possibilities of a plane being deliberately flown into a building was impossible for anyone to contemplate – until the second plane hit.
Then the unthinkable became a nightmarish reality. My understanding of the enormity of this event was so limited that I continued my drive to the airport. It was an eerie feeling when I arrived to drop off my luggage. I was met by a security guard who told me, “Don’t get out of your car; this airport and every other one in the U.S. is closed.”
Then I begin to understand the awful scope of something new in the world. That “new thing” became very real to me as I turned the car toward home and began to hear of smoke and fire at the Pentagon. What is happening to our safe, sane world? We had two children living in Washington, D. C. at that time; one of them lived on a hill which overlooked the Pentagon and the other at George Washington University downtown.
Like millions of others on that day of unreality, I began frantically trying to reach their cellphones. It was only late in the day that we were able to hear of their safety. Sadly there were thousands of calls made on that Sept. 11 that did not find reassurance that their loved ones were still live. One of those families lives in Wildwood Crest and the loss of that brother, son, husband, father is a grief that will always be with them.
My memory of that day, like every American of sufficient age to take note, represents the Pearl Harbor of our generation. Many times in our lives we will ask each other, “What were you doing on Nine-Eleven?” Then the memories will flow as the nation experienced the shared grief and disbelief that held us together, just as they did for my parents about the infamous Sunday in 1941.
Not long afterward Art and I went to White Plains, N.Y. for a wedding. The countryside was no longer orange and yellow with the ripening of fall colors, but instead was everywhere draped with the red, white and blue of our flag. Never had I experienced such a display of patriotic colors. There was no red state, blue state, but only the American nation, and we wanted to express our solidarity with the precious show of bunting.
Such intense emotions must fade, and we got back to our fractious disagreements as such a diverse nation always will. But in a relatively short time of unity there was a beauty of shared grief, commonality of human goodwill, unselfish deeds, prayerfulness and prolonged disbelief that such brutality and hatred could exist in any human being.
That was 12 years ago. Many children don’t have a memory of the day the world shifted and evil made its naked appearance. I have no wish to frighten tender minds but I do desire that we never forget and they learn that human beings are capable of great hatred. It is an understanding that will cause us to be vigilant in the face of that “new thing” which I recognized as I directed my car toward home. The “new thing” is the evil in the human heart and it is as old as mankind itself.
The wonderful force that keeps us from despair is the opposite power which also dwells in many human hearts and it is that love will eventually overcome evil. It is that assurance of victory which makes us face each day with joy and excitement. Let us dwell on in victory as we remember the loss of September 11.
From The Bible: Love does not rejoice in injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians 13