View From
The Middle
A Year Later — Complacency Is Still An Enemy
It’s hard to believe a year has passed since the world we knew changed. Yesterday’s ceremonies on the first anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the crash of the hijacked airliner in Pennsylvania were, generally speaking, proper, I think, including the scores of presentations seen on local and national TV, radio reports and, of course, newspaper features on the subject. All-in-all, the journalistic presentations were appropriate — compassionate and neither too maudlin nor too sensational.
Continuing our awareness of the horrible tragedy suffered on September 11, 2001 at the hands of those terrorists who left us the horrors of destruction and grief, we focused our thoughts and prayers in remembrance of the tragic loss of thousands that day, as well as the heroism of hundreds. It was indeed a time for deep thought and an awareness of those around us and how precious our moments together are. There were many tears as we watched the retelling of our story, as there were many swelling hearts of pride.
How have we acted and reacted during the past 12 months? Have we already let ourselves be — perhaps even slightly — complacent?
Where there was fervor and a deep sense of patriotic — and, yes, revengeful — purpose in those days and weeks immediately following the disaster, have we let some of those feelings slip?
That little flag that hung from your car antenna — is it still there? What about that bumper sticker that said "United We Stand?" — is it still a bright red, white and blue — or has the red faded from the sun? I’ll bet you just haven’t gotten around to replacing it, have you?
And what about blood donations? I remember exactly a year ago — September 12, 2001 — there were literally lines of donors at a drive the Sunrise Health Care Center on Avenue J. I was reminded of this just last week when the New York Blood Donor Program issued a statement saying they were running out of blood and needed more donors.
A certain amount of complacency is expected, of course. Hell, people are people. Human nature dictates that life must go on after we mourn our losses. During this short period, however, we must continue to run our lives not as if those disasters had not happened but, especially in this case, because of those events and even despite them. The enemy wants us to change our lives to suit their narrow purposes.
The world was watching as we picked up the pieces after those events of a year-plus-a-day past. Most notable was our shock, sorrow and, yes, pride. Later, those emotions were taken over by a rallying together — a solidarity, if you will — in confronting those who were responsible for this unprovoked disaster. Through unity and resolve, it was determined that we can overcome the fear. And we’ve done it.
Although we continue to mourn, there has been a resolve in our hearts that, even in our darkest hours, we can turn to each other for comfort and strength.
New York was dealt a tremendous blow when the terrorists struck at our heart. But we continue to meet the challenges brought on by the disaster.
Our hearts are indeed heavy, but, as we showed yesterday, we are coming out of the storm with our heads held high.
