The Triumph of Good – Remembering 9/11

Yesterday, September 11, was a witches brew of emotion for me.  I was up early, playing tennis with my daughter as the sun came up.  It’s one of my great pleasures in life, being out early and just enjoying her company.  She went to play a tournament match an hour later and lost, ending a pretty good weekend for her.

I listened to the radio broadcast on NPR of the various ceremonies at the sites as I drove to and from church later in the morning.  The singing of the national anthem by the Brooklyn Youth Choir was amazing.  If you didn’t get a chance to hear it, you can listen to them it here.  Listening to the families read the names of their lost relatives was almost too much.

When I returned home from church, I saw an amazing story on CNN of the water brigade of 9/11.  In the space of nine hours, all manner of boats moved over half a million people off of the south end of Manhattan.  It was the largest evacuation by water in world history, larger than the evacuation of Dunkirk in WW II.  It was completely unplanned and ad hoc.  It was carried out primarily by volunteer boaters and tugboat drivers who were no more sure of what was going to happen next than anyone else.  They risked their own lives throughout the day to ensure others would live.  There were stories of people jumping from the piers as boats were leaving and catching the rail, barely able to pull themselves onto the boat.

Last night I saw a 60 Minutes interview with Ali Soufan, an FBI agent in charge of interrogating some of the early captives in the manhunt for Al Qaeda.  He has a book coming out today that I intend to read.  I also heard an interview with Lauren Manning, who was burned severely over 80% of her body on that day but has lived to tell an amazing story. Her book is another that is going on the list to read.

Like anyone else old enough, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on 9/11/2001.  We saved the newspaper from the next morning, and we come across it periodically when we are moving things in the house.  I always stop to read it and look at the pictures.

There is a lot of talk about how we are winning the war on terror.  As Dan Carlin has talked about, I am not so sure we have won anything in the last ten years.  We have lost thousands more American lives in protracted wars that have no end in sight.  We have lost freedoms at home.  Our government is over its head in debt, due in no small part to fighting two or three wars at a time.

You know what, though?  I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.  We may be royally screwed up right now, but after taking in the events of yesterday I am convinced that we will be back.

What was your most memorable moment from yesterday’s ceremonies?