Remember 11

There is nothing I can write that can say enough. There is nothing I can think that can express the sorrow and revulsion I felt one year ago, and the sense of loss that I feel today. Nothing I have read in the course of the past year has done justice to September 11. It was simply too big to comprehend, too horrific to understand. I believe it will take each of us years, and perhaps lifetimes, to grasp the enormity of such a senseless loss of innocent lives.

Perhaps our way of coping is to forget. Americans are good at living for today, for being complacent about what happened yesterday. However painful the images and memories of September 11 may be, to simply file that day in the recesses of our memory is to do a disservice to the souls of those who suffered. Today, the world is a different place. We may trust strangers less and look over our shoulders more. But September 11 caused us to stop and take stock of ourselves and those we love. September 11 made us confront what is really important and consider our own mortality. However sobering that may be, perhaps the legacy of September 11 is to make us realize that this could be our last day on this Earth, and motivate us to make every day special.

You may never know when the goodbye you say to your wife, your father, your son, your daughter or your friend might be the last opportunity you may ever have. Instead of wasting yet another day, September 11 is a wake-up call to make every day special. If the brave souls of Flight 93 are any example, each of us can make a difference. It is up to each of us to stand up to tyranny, injustice, prejudice, intolerance, fear and terror. Regardless of whether we have a choice in how we leave this world, by standing up to terror and intimidation, we diminish its strength and its shadow. By showing we have nothing to fear, fear has nothing to show.

What will you do on September 11? Will you pause to remember those who died? Or will you ignore the unthinkable? Will you stop to remember, and remember to love? I hope that you do. For me, the anger will never go away. I can only pray that justice will be done. But that does not give me a license to hate, to cast blame on someone else because they are not like me. Instead, I will choose to stop. To remember. To love those close to me with an urgency of my last opportunity to do so. Life is special. It's sad that it takes September 11 to cause most of us to stop and look inward.

Nothing I can do will do justice to September 11 and its victims. For all of us, there is still the pall of shock and pain. But I believe that in time, each of us will hear a voice from within us, telling each of us what we have to do. But I would ask you only one thing today. Remember 11.