Today is the 10 year anniversary of the largest scale attack on U.S. soil in the entire history of the United States of America.
As I was driving into work this morning I was constantly fighting back emotions that made it difficult to drive. It just struck me that this is the first time out of all 10 anniversaries that I was particularly emotional.
As a nation I think this is generally true. I think for all of the other anniversaries we've been more preoccupied with fear. Is there going to be another attack? The memory of that day was too fresh. On my way to work I heard personal accounts of the day for the first time. I heard stories about individuals who were brave, scared, confused. And many of them died.
I think now, 10 years later, that we as a nation are finally done running and done fighting. Our collective fight or flight response is finally turning into greif and into healing.
One particular story I heard on Komo News Radio in Seattle really got to me. Tami Michaels was staying in a hotel across the street and after the first tower collapsed they decided to try and evacuate. In the thick black smoke she describes hearing a storm of loud beeping and chirping. She described it as a swarm of noise all around her. She found out later that the beeping noise she heard was a piece of safety equipment that firefighters wear. If a firefighter is doesn't move for over two minutes their alarm goes off. The swarm of noise was fallen heroes all around her.
I can't find a link the audio I heard but this is her blog about interior design: http://www.komonews.com/living/tami-michaels
And this is a link to Komo News Radio: http://www.komonews.com/
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