Saturday 11 September 2010

Remebering 9/11

As it's the 9th Anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, I've been thinking about the effect it has had on our world.

There are no words to describe what kind of event that was.  "Tragedy" "Horror" "Terrible" None of these words are able to convey the enormity of the event.  And, that's a good thing.  If we had the words to talk about it, we'd be living in a world where it was commonplace.  For anyone who's interested in the academics of how we discuss extraordinary events, Gail Jefferson's article, At First I Thought: A Normalising Device for Extraordinary Events, is a fascinating read.  And, even though it's an academic article, it's not an esoteric read.  The language is very down to earth and readable.

Tragic as that day was, there was some good that came out of it.  The individual stories of heroism, strength and fortitude.  The stories of those who sacrificed themselves on the 4th plane, refusing to be the tool of those who would do evil.  The stories of those who risked everything to help as many people escape the towers, many of whom did not make it themselves.  And, of course, the marvelous miracles of those who helped and did escape.  To you, whether you've dedicated your lives to helping others as emergency response personnel, or whether you're the average joe who stepped up on that anything-but-average day, I thank you.  I thank you for not being human - for being super-human and doing what needed to be done.  Some of those acts were extraordinarily dangerous.  Others were quiet.  All were heroic.

2 comments:

Melissa Snyder said...

I remember that day too. We were both on the mission. I was in La Granja and we rushed home after a Zone meetin and a little old man in the feria told us that the U.S. was blowing up so we ran home and our mamita below us rushed us into her home and we watched and cried. What an unforgetable experience that was.
So you are moving back to the US ha? Awesome. I am going to be in Provo the second week in October. Let's get togther.
I am assuming you are an aunt by now. How fabulous. Congrats!!!
Are you really going to miss London? What made you come home?

Adele said...

Yeah, I was in Padre Hurtado. The church we were meeting at was in a gated community, and the guard was the first one to tell us anything. He said, "Se dejaron la escoba en Nueva York" as we were leaving... and we were like... yeah... sure... uh huh. Wasn't til we stopped off to get our laundry that we found out what was going on. A member of the other Hnas wards brought a tv round to our house so we could watch the news and see what was going on.