Remember 9/11, not relive it
Each year, as the date Sept. 11 approaches, we reflect and remember the events of the terrible day that was Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. We remember where we were and what we were doing when we first heard the news that America was under attack. We take a moment of silence for the victims, attend memorials or church services in honor of those who lost their lives that day. We may even take a trip to New York City to visit Ground Zero and the new 9/11 Memorial, as Mt. Lebanon resident “NY Vinnie” Richichi does each year.
And, thanks to countless programming on what seems like every television station, we rip off the bandage, pick the scab and pour salt in our emotional wound as we watch the planes slam into the World Trade Center towers, listen to eye witness accounts of the horror, and then watch the towers fall. We watch as family members of the victims sob as they describe the last point of contact that they had with loved ones on the airplanes or in the towers.
We watch the powerful documentary “9/11” directed by brothers Jules and Gedeon Naudet, which was supposed to be a film about probie NYC firefighter James Hanlon. In that film, we watch some first responders say what ended up being their final goodbyes to each other before ascending the stairs of the towers, and we listen as bodies hit the ground, jumping from floors high above the inferno.
Even 13 years later, it is still all too much. The magnitude of that day is something that time will never heal.
We absolutely should remember Sept. 11, 2001, and we should pay tribute to those who lost their lives, whether they were on the planes, in the towers, first responders, or simply those who felt it their duty to show up and do what they could.
But we shouldn’t have to relive it year after year.