Is September 11th Still a Thing?

Today is September 11th.

It's been 22 years since that fateful day in 2001 when terrorists attacked us on our home soil. 

I still remember with perfect clarity where I was and what I was doing that morning. 

I distinctly remember the weather was quite pleasant.  Under a blue sky, the air was at once warm with the lingering summer sun but with a hint of a chill portending the coming autumn.   

It was a beautiful day. 

While elsewhere terror and death come screaming from the skies over New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania.   

Over the following days we shifted from shock, despair and grief to rising up with a conviction that we would survive this and show the world we are strong and united.  

We could be hurt. We would not be defeated.  

22 years later after that terrible day, I wonder...  Is September 11th still a thing? 

Yes, there will be solemn ceremonies recounting the names of those we lost that day. There will be commemorations and recollections of our shock and our grief and how rose up to face the challenge.   

But if feels like in the intervening years something has been lost. 

It feels like today is just another day. The big story today is the start of the new season of Wheel of Fortune as Pat Sajak begins his farewell turn as host.  

Is September 11th still a thing? 

Time heals, it is said, and perhaps that's part of what is at play here. But is 22 years a long enough measure of time to move on? 

I don't think so.   

But I think what happened over the last 22 years goes beyond the mere passage of time. 

September 11th united us against a common threat, an enemy who threatened us all.  

That unity has been lost and I almost think that to be a loss nearly as tragic as the loss of life on September 11th.  

Over the intervening 22 years, half of our country has been taught that the other half is the enemy.

Politicians and pundits rail and sputter into their microphones that those who do not agree with their political philosophy HATE America, that they are the true ENEMY of America.  So called leaders who strut and preen extol the "virtues" of a specific demographic of citizens who voted for them as representing ALL Americans.  There are political leaders who have sacrificed the IDEALS of America in pursuit of PERSONAL power.   

America has been sliced and diced, fragmented and corrupted, our unity rendered into dust.  

America has been damaged in a way more profound than anything those terrorists who captured those planes on September 11th could even conceive.  

Is September 11th still a thing? 

If it isn't, it's because we found a new enemy among our brothers and sisters. 

Empty Sky Memorial, Liberty State Park. 
This is a memorial for the residents of New Jersey who died during the attacks on September 11, 2001. The two-walled structure is engraved with the names of all 746 New Jerseyites who were lost that day. The walls line up with the Manhattan skyline to direct the viewer’s gaze across the Hudson River to the place where the Twin Towers once stood.