Reflecting on 9/11
Here is my post from the fifth anniversary of 9/11. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments:
I remember waking up that morning just before 9am. The girl I was dating at the time called me from Athens,she was attending UGA, to make sure I was up because I had some things to do that day. Actually...the things I had to do weren't all that important. It involved driving to the Media Play at Mt. Zion to buy two new records, Satellite by POD and Live in a Dive by No Use For A Name.After Molly called, I got on the computer for a few minutes. She IM'd me telling me that something had happened at the World Trade Center and that I should to turn on the tv, by this time it's probably about 9:15am. I sat on my couch for the next two hours in awe, everyone watched in awe.
Around noon I headed up to buy those two cd's. On the way there I kept switching stations to see how it was being covered. A close friend of mine worked at Media Play. We talked for a bit about what had happened, a few of his co-workers joined in, all of us were exchanging the different rumors we'd heard so far, for example that there had been planes shot down because they had been hijacked and that the city of Atlanta was locked down.
After I left Media Play I went to the O'Charley's in Stockbridge. I worked there as a server at the time, but that particular evening I was filling in for a friend of mine as a host. The place was completely empty. They were working on a skeleton crew, one cook and two servers at about 2pm. I made sure I was still needed that night, yeah...I was trying to get out of work.I went home and sat in front of the tv until it was time to leave for work. It was the typical Tuesday night, we got real busy for about an hour and steady until about 8pm. During work I had been checking the tv at the bar to see what was going on. I was cut at 9pm. I ordered some food and sat at the bar until 11pm watching replays of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center.
I got into an argument with one of my co-workers. She said that what happened did effect her. She said she didn't see the need to make a big deal about it. I said, "We are going to war. How does that not effect you?" A couple of customers were pissed off at what she had said, they didn't complain to a manager, but they said something to her.
The next night at church the guy that typically played guitar for the praise and worship band couldn't play, he couldn't stop crying. He had held it in for a while, but he finally let it out. He asked me if I could fill in for him, which I had no problem doing...even though I didn't know the songs we were supposed to be playing.
For the next week when I wasn't working or practicing with my band or with Molly, I was watching coverage of the terrorist acts. I think it was in that week when I started to talk more about my personal political opinions, I'd never understood why religion and politics were considered to be taboo subjects. They are two subjects that need to be discussed, though separated.
The events of September 11th have had a huge effect on me. We need to remember what happened that day. We need to remember the just under 3,000 men and women that were murdered by 19 Islamic terrorists...not the US government in the conspiracy theory du jour. There is a time and place to discuss the political issues that were a result these attacks, like the USA PATRIOT Act or the NSA wiretaps, which I am very much against.
On this day, please remember the families of those that lost loved ones in these attacks and continue to pray for our leaders.
Comments
All day I have listened to CDs featuring lyrics like Darryl Worley's Have you forgotten? and Alan Jackson's Where were you? And Lee Greenwood's Proud to be an American was some comfo