#Neverforget. I must have seen that 500 times today (or, I guess, yesterday now). I understand the sentiment. But really, did anyone think I was thiiisss close to forgetting? Seriously?
Everyone has their story of where they were on September 11, 2001. People remember it vividly, just like women can recount their childbirths with startling accuracy.
So where was I? Ummmm, I was....asleep.
It was 5:46 AM in Oregon when the first plane hit the first tower. I kept hitting my snooze alarm button, catching snippets of NPR reports about two planes hitting a building. I remember thinking it must have been an air show, and I pictured two old biplanes crashing into the same barn.
Not quite.
By the time Saville called and commanded me to get up and turn on the television, all four planes had gone down. Everyone knew that, but that was about all that anyone knew. It was such a perfect Portland fall day, sunny, warm and blue-skied. On TV, New York, DC and Pennsylvania looked beautiful as well, through the smoke and tears. I watched the video feed over and over again, always surprised that the towers kept collapsing. Like maybe there could be a new ending to the story, if I just watched it often enough.
There wasn't, of course. Again today, the footage rolled, and the towers fell down. The names were read and tears, including mine, were shed.
But after 13 years of war, abrogations of civil liberties and mindless posturing, we're not any safer. The world is not any saner. If anything, technology has made our insecurity more obvious, closer to home. ISIS, ISIL, whatever they'll call themselves next week--they're not just on a TV across the room or in a corner of a bar. They're on our phones, in our pockets and purses, and hey, now even on our wrists.
There's no more distance. We can't pretend it doesn't matter because they're just brown people living "over there." A life is a life, whether it's ours or theirs. And more importantly, we can't pretend that we don't have some responsibility for solving this problem. And possibly for creating it, or at least for watering the seeds sown by others from which their hatred sprouted.
So, #Neverforget? That's the one thing we don't have to worry about. 9/11 is seared into our national soul, as it should be.
But you know what will be forgotten, or at least faded, within a couple years? #Ferguson. #Hobbylobby. #CitizensUnited. And that's a problem. Each of those represents an assault on the most basic founding principles of our nation: Equal rights. Separation of church and state. Government of the people, by the people and for the people.
What is America without these ideals? Our country is so much more than yellow ribbons and flags fluttering in gentle breezes. Our country is--or can be--a beacon of freedom and liberty. Yet we are just sitting by and watching everything we stand for be dismantled--not from outside threats but from within--our courts, our legislators, our police. Ourselves.
Oh, and Antonin Scalia. Can't forget him.
#Neverforget. And never forget what we're defending.
It's time to wake up.
