Never Forget

My mother says that she remembers the day that Kennedy was killed. 1963. I bet that she remembers the clothes that she was wearing, the class that she was in and the hours and days following the assassination. I bet if I talked to others in her generation, they would be able to tell me the same thing.

I was talking to a friend at lunch about this and she was telling me that she remembers what she was doing and where she was the day the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. 1986. I remember too. I was a junior in high school and I remember my teacher crying while we watched the coverage on TV. She was crying, no doubt, for one of her fellow educators that was on that voyage.

1990. I came home from a dinner out with friends to find my Mom and Dad glued to the TV watching as Desert Storm began. I remember thinking the my Dad, an Army Reservist at the time, would not be called up and months later I was home from college helping him pack.

2001. I was a substitute teacher that did not get called in to work that day. I dropped my 2 year old son at Daycare and went home to watch Good Morning America. As I was driving home I remember thinking what a beautiful day it was. As I watched the events of 9-11 unfold LIVE on television, I could not believe my eyes. I cried for days. To this day I can pull up the exact feeling that I had when I watched those towers fall. I remember going to St. Helen's Church the next day to join with strangers in a novena for peace.

Every year when the coverage of 9-11 comes on TV I am jealous of my children. My children, one of which was born 9 months to the day after 9-11 ask me "Why would people fly those planes into the buildings if they knew that it would kill people?" How do I answer that? Is there an answer that?

As I write this, my wish for my children and the children of the world is that they will never sit and write a post like this. That they will never cry at the thought of events that occurred 10 years ago. That they will never have to endure the pain and sorrow that so many Americans endure today. That they will never have to stand in a church, hold hands with strangers and say a novena for peace.

Never forget? If you were alive and old enough to understand.........it is impossible to forget.