Column on Memorials for 9/11

The fifteenth anniversary of 9/11 arrives. I was getting ready for a class on Psalms on a gorgeous September morning when the news started to reveal the extent of the damage. Fifteen years ago, many high school sophomores were not born. It reminds me of people saying Pearl Harbor when it was 13 years before my birth. We all live in the shadow of events that precede us, but they have an impact on our culture.

Those children live in a different country: more fearful, more anxious, and more uncertain. We accept inspections that were not considered possible before the attacks. We charged into a war in Iraq and now struggle on the care of those how fought there and in the more justified war in Afghanistan. Living under a shadow of threat affects our capacity to make good decisions and it makes us prone to become dependent on someone who can promise a tough, protective image when the fears grow stronger. 9/11 brought an awareness of vulnerability to our shores, hence the name homeland security, for the new bureaucratic entity.

In other ways, I am so proud that President Bush and other government officials were determined not to permit terrorism to become a religious war. We continue to try to work through the demands of due process and an iron fist for public safety to threats.

When I was in seminary, I would declare myself dean and take a day to tour New York City. I always knew we were close when we took a curve and there were the twin towers. After 9/11, I took the same train and found myself looking for towers that were not longer there. The World Trade Center building has been erected to a height of 1,776 feet.

On the site of the original twin towers is a museum and memorial dedicated to 9/11 that takes up half of the 16 acres of the original area. The names are inscribed, in bronze, of the dead around twin pools of water. Contri8butions have been made to give a glimpse of the life of each individual killed that fateful day. A pear tree, a Survivor Tree, was found in the rubble and the Parks Dept. cared for it. So it is replanted with its gnarled remains and smooth new growth on the same tree. So we have rebuilt with a powerful symbol of strength and aspiration and provided a memorial for mourning the loss of innocent people on 9/11.

In a rural area of Pennsylvania, the National Park Service has a park dedicated to the passengers and crew that crashed a plane to avoid it being taken into the nation’s Capitol. At the Pentagon, care was taken to remember the names of the flight that crashed into the Pentagon. It is oriented by age and each bench has a water element involved in it. A section of the Pentagon that was struck by the plane is lit by blue lights on the anniversary. Following the pattern of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, all of the memorials list the names of the fallen.

Bruce Springsteen was urged by fans to write songs that reflected the post 9/11 landscape. I can’t help but hear parts of the rising when I see a picture of that glorious building and the memorials: Spirits above and behind me/Faces gone, black eyes burnin' bright/May their precious blood forever bind me/Lord as I stand before your fiery light

I see you Mary in the garden/In the garden of a thousand sighs/There's holy pictures of our children/Dancin' in a sky filled with light/May I feel your arms around me/
May I feel your blood mix with mine