It's hard to believe that just six years ago today, our collective lives as Americans were altered forever by hijacked planes crashing into symbols of American freedom in New York City and Washington, D.C. and into the quiet country fields of Pennsylvania. I can still remember being a junior in high school, waking up to get ready for school and turning on my television just in time to see the second plane strike the World Trade Center. I thought to myself at that point that there was no way what I was watching was actually taking place.
That's the way it was for a lot of us that day. It was a day like no other that we had experienced. After all, I've never had a day of school before or since where all we did was watch the news on television all day long.
At that time, most of us had no idea what had really happened and it would be several hours and maybe even days before the entirety of the situation had sunk in. Thousands of our fellow citizens perished in a matter of moments and the brutality exposed on that day was more than had been seen since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor close to 60 years before.
Yet America bounced back. We bounced back because we realized that life must go on even in the face of tragedy. There were things along the way that reminded us that there were constants in the face of a world-changing event. For instance, that fall the Arizona Diamondbacks played the New York Yankees in one of the most exciting World Series in Major League Baseball history. That series spawned a documentary film, Nine Innings from Ground Zero, about how it helped ease New York City and the rest of the nation back into some sense of normalcy.
We bounced back because people began to help people they didn't know by donating money or whatever else they could to the relief efforts underway to assist the families of those affected by the attack.
We bounced back because for a time, people of all political stripes worked together to find common ground on issues facing the country, and while that may not necessarily be the case anymore, it worked long enough for us to get back on our feet again.
Yes, we were struck on 9/11/2001, but we can rest assured that our lives are back to normal. After all, more people from Phoenix probably voted for the American Idol than will have voted in the Phoenix City Council election today.
For better or worse, we are back to where we were before that day but just because things may be going well for us now, that doesn't mean that we can forget how much that day affected our lives and our worldview.
I hope that all of us take some time today to reflect on the events that occurred just six years ago because it was the event that will shape our generation. It won't be too long until the next couple of generations ask us questions such as, "What was it like to experience 9/11?" just as we have asked the "Greatest Generation" about what it was like to experience the attack on Pearl Harbor.
T.J. Shope is a Political Science senior and is hoping that if you're a Phoenix resident, you remembered to vote today. Reach him at tjshope@hotmail.com.
