As 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Nears, Didn’t We Learn Anything?

BensonPublished: August 27, 2021

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 11: People pause in the World Trade Center Oculus as the retractable skylight is opened during a morning commemoration ceremony for the victims of the terrorist attacks seventeen years after the day on September 11, 2018 in New York City.The skylight, which gives a view of One World Trade, is only opened on September 11. Throughout the country services are being held to remember the 2,977 people who were killed in New York, the Pentagon and in a field in rural Pennsylvania on what was one of the worst attacks on American soil in the nations history. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The twentieth anniversary of probably the worst event of my lifetime is coming up in about two weeks, and I'm guessing I'm not the only one reflecting on it. The terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, as horrible and scary as they were, did do one good thing in the immediate aftermath. For a few, much too short, weeks, those tragic events caused us as a nation to come together.

And now, as I look around, all I see is a world that is much worse than it was twenty years ago. And it's not the pandemic that's to blame. It's people. Everyday people. It's neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, American against American. This latest world crisis, the pandemic, has only exacerbated this ten-fold it appears. Everywhere you look, whether its people attacking their neighbors for wearing a mask, or not wearing a mask, or making threats at government meetings, everybody is upset at something or somebody. And, here's maybe the worst part about it. They're not shy in telling everyone at the top of their lungs in most cases.

I try and tell myself, most of this behavior is borne of frustration. So many people are scared; scared for their jobs, scared for their kids, scared for the lives. Too many people have showed us their true selves and too many people have taken advantage of the void in leadership, some openly mocking it.

As usual I have no answers. I just pray most people will shut up. Raising one's voice doesn't make the argument any more valid.

All I know is twenty years ago on that sunny Tuesday morning, when the world changed forever, we were so scared. But we also united as one.