As we wrap up the marathon 24 hours of news coverage surrounding the tenth anniversary of September 11th, a question occurred to me.All day I have been watching on and off. DVRing some programs, watching others live. I went to the Colorado Rockies game today and it was full of symbolism and significance. Former military, current military, children, police officers, and firemen. Every conversation surrounded this significant day.As I wrapped up my day watching home videos and other citizen journalism, painstakingly chronically every second of the 102 minutes that changed our country, I found myself crying off and on... yelling at the dispatchers on tv who were telling people to "stay put" in the towers... cheering for the people running from the dust cloud.I finally peeled myself away from the tv to take a shower.In the shower I had a thought... have we done more harm than good? No, stop, don't jump to conclusions. Let me get this thought out.Today we packed every television station with wall to wall coverage of the tragedy ten years ago. Most stations replayed the reel from the day, ten years ago. The minute by minute discoveries. Was this an accident? Was it an explosion? Was it a small plane or a large one? Did a second plane just hit the other tower? Unconfirmed reports from DC and Pennsylvania. Explosion at the Pentagon. Targeting the White House? Terrorists? Accidents? Air Traffic Control problems? Is this war? This spells a change for our airport security.It sometimes felt like they were fortune tellers... I see a man, his name starts with an 'O' and he has a beard... Obadiah? Osama! Yes, that's it.I watched the coverage and remembered almost every word. The way the anchors interrupted each other. The footage of New Yorkers stricken.But did we do more harm than good by packing this day too full with the past images? I do not disagree that these are vitals pieces of our American history. I do not disagree that they should be archived and brought out to be seen often. But what struck me was that here we are, in the Hebrew month of Elul. A time to look back on our past, take stock of our present, and make adjustments for our future.We took time to look back. We have spent 24 hours looking at every angle of this tragedy... but what we haven't done is look at where we are today and what our future holds. Now I know Katie Couric is not a fortune teller and news anchors, no matter how hard they try, they cannot tell us the future... none of us can. But we sure can give ourselves a mantra for the upcoming year, a focal point, an ideal to live up to.One of the boat captains, who saved many lives (by the way, this was the largest water evacuation ever... larger than Dunkirk which was some 300,000 military men over the course of nine days... our tug boats and ferry men got over 500,000 New Yorkers out of Manhattan in less than nine hours), said "I have one theory in life. I never want to say 'I should have.'"This is what today should have been. Divided into three parts.
- The memorial of the events, the reMEMBERING (once again affirming our membership into this most difficult 'club') of those lost and the horror of the day.
- Taking stock of where we are today and noting our growth and the areas where we, as Americans, can still grow.
- Looking forward to the future, deciding who we want to be and how we want to live.
This is the Eluling process. It's a healing process, one that helps us all move forward and take our memories and lessons with us.I fear we lost an opportunity here, a time when so many eyes were trained on the television screens that could help convey this process.
- I remember those lost. I will never forget. The memory is seared into me. I wish all Americans still loved and helped each other like they did that day and for weeks after.
- The events of 9/11 shaped me today. I do not fear death nor destruction because I know when my day will come it will come, thus I must live every day to the fullest. I learned to care for all and not just the people in my circle.
- I never want to say 'I should have.' I want to do my best in this next year to care for all those around me.