No, never forget.
My younger siblings were still schoolchildren when the attack happened. My sister watched it live on television. I was actually commuting when it happened, and a voice came on the radio and all the man said was "Something has happened in New York, we'll get back to you as we get more information."
I felt sick.
I went to class, with the most hard ass professor on campus as our lecturer, the one who held above all that his class was more important to you than family, health or life itself, and we ended class 18 minutes early, the only time that's ever happened. No one in the room knew, but it was a silent gathering.
That's when I noticed, seeing the throngs of humanity milling about, that something was wrong. I tried to find a television, and it didn't take long.
Pushing past scores of people, I saw it for the first time. The guy beside me was eating the remains of seven chicken nuggets in a foil wrapper with a honey mustard dipping sauce. He had black hair and was wearing dark jeans and a black and white checkered button up shirt.
I could describe just as vividly the floor, ceiling, and plants in the foyer, and the other people watching with me. It was a Sony brand television. But most clearly of all, I remember seeing the smoking wreckage on the screen.
It's like it happened yesterday. That six years have passed is unbelievable.
What am I doing today in commemoration?
Some years ago those siblings I mentioned speculated that 9/11 would become a national day of mourning, when schools would shut down and people would stay home all day.
My father said no, on every September 11th, we're going to do what we would have done anyway, only with more resolve, vigor, and purpose than ever before. It is for that reason that the efforts of those hijackers will mean nothing other than a group of fanatics murdered countless people. That is the ultimate defiance, and retaliation. You can destroy a building, but you cannot dent the steel beams of American resolve. We will laugh at your pathetic and cowardly attack, scorch you from the face of the earth, and return with an even bigger building.
I say we rebuild the WTC exactly as it was, only 1 floor taller, just out of spite.
No, never forget. Business as usual today.
