Twenty-five years ago today I left from the classroom where i was marking assignments and went down to the college office to organise some printing. When I got there I found the receptionist and other clerical staff glued to the computer screen where scenes of a plane flying into one of New York’s Twin Towers.
When I arrived home later I found my husband, our daughter and her four year old daughter similarly glued to the television screen. (I wonder if that four year old remembers that day now.) More information was coming in but nobody yet knew what had happened.
We still don’t know what really happened on September 11th 2001. Theories abound about the nature of the collapse of the towers being similar to a controlled explosion. We’ll never know but the fact remains that huge numbers pf people lost their lives and others were traumatised by what they went through getting away from what became Ground Zero.
And so aspects of our life and travel and security changed completely overnight.
Former Presidents Jo Biden, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will be attending a memorial ceremony at Ground Zero together with other important people. But reports say that President Trump won’t be there, despite his having made various claims about where he was and what he did on September 11th 2001.
One suggestion is that he refused to attend because he won’t be allowed to make a speech. Somehow even in his absence he makes it all about him.
But it’s not about him. It’s the people whose lives were lost that need to be remembered today.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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