Remembering the Face of Tragedy

The morning of September 11th will be forever etched into the memories of countless people across the United States and the world. For some it was a personal loss, for others, a glimpse of the mortality of our safety. This picture evokes emotion in us, for many, in a way nothing else has ever touched them. Across the country, we pause today to remember, and well we should. It was a day that all Americans felt deeply.

It was a day when there was panic for those waiting to hear from loved ones in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon. My father was scheduled to have been in the wing of the Pentagon that was struck. His meeting had been cancelled, and he watched the events from a building less than a mile away, while we waited for hours to find out he was alive. One of our neighbors was not so lucky, and like many others I visited his memorial this week, to remember. For his family and countless others, it was a day of loss. From old men to three year old children, from heroes in uniform to everyday heroes, it was a day of sacrifice and mourning.

It was a day of introspection and conversation. We all had questions, we all wanted to know why. We could look in each other's faces, no matter who we were, and see our thoughts mirrored in those of the person looking back at us. We saw others feeling the same suffering that we were, and how we acted toward them changed. I watched a barista in a coffee bar giving free coffee to anyone in a uniform; Fire, Police, EMS, military. I watched people who normally spent every day at work back-biting and infighting, hold each other , comfort each other through their grief. We looked at each other, and we realized that we all suffer.

It is a day that many of us looked into the face of tragedy.

It is perhaps even more tragic that we ignore that face every other day.

We soon forgot how 9-11 brought us together, and say "Remember" one day a year. Remember the tragedy, remember how we suffered.

Yet we neglect the suffering that affects us daily. It should not take 9-11 to remind us that we are all carrying the same pain. Who among us has not lost a loved one? Who among us has not been touched by pain? Who among us has not been ill?

Who among us will not die?

We do not need 9-11 to remind us that we looked into the face of tragedy.

We need only to look at the person next to us on the Metro.

The person on the other side of the counter as we buy our coffee.

The person sitting at the side of the road we have walked by every day since 9-11.

The person at work who always annoys us.

The person who has said hateful things about us.

The person across the dinner table from us.

The person in the mirror after we wash our face.

Remember.

And act.