Day: August 28, 2025

No Day Shall Erase You From the Memory of Time — Virgil

In the 9/11 Museum there is a wall created with hundreds of watercolor drawings attempting to depict the color of the sky on that fateful morning. As I stared at the work of art on my visit there I found myself vividly remembering how lovely that September day was, not just in New York City, but in Houston, Texas as well. I was getting ready to a attend a monthly meeting at the administration headquarters for HISD. There I would meet with educators from all across the city to discuss ways to enhance the many magnet school programs that allowed students to choose schools offering specialties designed for their interests. 

I was the coordinator for the magnet program for math and science at Revere Middle School and I was looking forward to mingling with some of the finest educators in the city. Since my drive would take me to a bustling part of Houston I was happy that the weather was so serene, a truly beautiful September day. I readied myself with eagerness to get on the road and avoid as much of the ever present traffic as possible. As I put the finishing touches on my makeup and hair I watched Good Morning America at the very moment when the first plane hit one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Like everyone my first instinct was to think that somehow a pilot had strayed from the proper course. I wondered if he had perhaps had a heart attack or if something had distracted him. My brain was not ready to accept what had actually happened. 

With only a bit of anxiety I had to leave for my appointment. As I drove I tuned in to one of the local radio stations where the talk was now buzzing with theories about what might have happened. Then came the shocking second plane plowing into the other tower. That’s when my chest tightened and my imagination went crazy. I was so shocked that I called my husband to find out if this had really happened. When he verified the incident I did not know what to think or what to do. Somehow I ended up in the parking lot of the building where the meeting was supposed to take place realizing that I had gone blank and driven for many miles without actually seeing the road in front of me. 

I hurried inside the building to see my fellow educators sitting silently watching a television tuned to one of the local stations. The mood was somber and it felt as though nobody was moving or even breathing. I wordlessly moved toward an available seat only to get settled as one of the towers began to collapse before my eyes. A few people screamed. Some began to cry. It was a nightmare scenario that is burned forever into my memory. Little did we realize that within minutes the other tower would also collapse and a kind of hysteria would overtake the room.

Everything changed in the United States on that day. While we began with a state of national unity the reality of what had happened left fissures in our society. Some wanted justice while others demanded vengeance. We spoke of staying strong and not allowing the terrorists to damage our democracy but bit by bit over the ensuing years we began to quibble with each other. Years of war made us weary and sometimes even angry with each other. We retreated into bubbles that made us feel safe. We created a kind of tribal behavior in which we competed with one another in defining who we were as Americans and what we needed to do to keep our nation from imploding under the grief and fear that was so palatable after that tragedy. Somehow without meaning to do so we gave the terrorists what they had hoped to achieve. We stopped working together and attempting to hear and respect differing points of view. Now we find ourselves under the thumb of a leader who used the divisions to rally votes for a worldview that seems unwilling to accept alternative ideas for repairing the damage done to our nation.

Today the area that was once the scene of death and destruction is serene and beautiful. There is a memorial dedicated to all the souls who lost their lives on that horrible day. There is a new tower that rises in the sky announcing that we were not undone by the violence. There is both remembrance and resurrection on top of the ashes. It is a moving place, a spiritual place, a place of reverence and hope. Sadly we have not worked as hard to repair the cracks and despair that exist between us. We choose sides, going even far enough to destroy long time friendships with our disagreements. We classify each other according to our individual beliefs with an unwillingness to live together in peace and harmony. The ruination of the glory that was once our American dream has become a kind of nightmare where the rule seems to be to concur with the man in charge or face the consequences. Innocent people are being rounded up and sent away. We seem unable to work together for a common good rather than a single point of view. 

Perhaps the healing will not come until we are all able to see and agree that the damage to our relationships with one another are as terrible as the loss of those two towers and the people inside them on that day. We have yet to walk away from that tragedy with the right message, the right resolve. No day should erase those people from our memory but honoring them would require us to rebuild our relationship under the leadership of an individual who understands how important it is to walk out of our bubbles and embrace each other with unconditional love regardless of how different we may be. 

I know that this sounds impossible, far too much of a dream, but if we are to overcome the pain and hurt inflicted on our entire nation on that horrific day we must find the determination and the resolve to resurrect the love and respect that we should have for each other. Our nation was never meant to be selfish and stubborn. We were world leaders in embracing the tired and lost and giving them hope. Perhaps that is the job on which we must embark. It’s an ideal set forth time and again in our nation’s history. It’s a place where I long to return.