A Day of Remembrance

The pagers started going off in the middle of a workshop. Messages that made no sense. Planes flying into buildings? Until immediately afterwards. When we emerged from the conference room, TVs were set up across the lobby – across many lobbies and schools and workplaces. 

Every generation has a defining tragic moment – a pseudo-shared memory. “I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the news came.” The Stock Market crash. The bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Apollo 1 launch pad explosion. The assassination of JFK. The killing of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Challenger explosion. Planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 

It’s been 24 years. We have an adult generation who never knew a time before smart phones and microwaves, and who grew up in the shadow of, but don’t remember, the tragedy of September 11, 2001. 

Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in minutes. Another 10,000 would later die from injuries and what they inhaled while trying to rescue a few from the buildings as they collapsed or from cleaning up the aftermath.

Worth Remembering

The September 11 attacks remain the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history. We as a nation grieved. But we also did something else. While thousands of lives were lost, millions more were touched. 

The United States came together, connected not just in fear but also in bravery, courage, compassion, aid, sadness, determination and the will to survive. We were inspired by lives lost, and even more so by those who sacrificed themselves to prevent an even larger tragedy. 

Thousands rushed in to clean up, to rebuild, to defend our nation. They did so without considering race or gender, religious or political affiliations. No one cared if the rescuers or the rescued were immigrants, natural born, our friends, our enemies, our cultural opposites or sympathizers. We didn’t care about the color of their skin or the God they worshipped – even if it was the same one the terrorists claimed to follow. 

We were all human. All Americans. All united.

Thoughts and Prayers

We seem to have lost a fair amount of that unity these days. There is more division, more tribalism, more us versus them than at any other time in our recent history. On the anniversary of September 11, we are a nation divided, on the precipice of something… Will we go the route of schism - torn asunder like we were during the Civil War? Or will we work to repair the divergence, to once again come together as we did following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and entering World War II? And can we do it without being forced to by another tragedy? 

While we cannot predict what our leaders, neighbors or even our own families will do, we can each, individually, stand up and say we will do our best. We will pray for unity, and we will reach across the divide, to unite under a common goal of peace, of love, of friendship. We don’t have to agree on everything, just on one thing – there is more that unites us than divides us and we are stronger together. 

“Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples - while judging ourselves by our best intentions. And this has strained our bonds of understanding and common purpose.. But Americans, I think, have a great advantage. To renew our unity, we only need to remember our values. We have never been held together by blood or background. We are bound by things of the spirit – by shared commitments to common ideals.” ~ President George W. Bush 

That is the promise of America and the prayer in our hearts. If you have a request you’d like us to pray for, submit it here. Finally, Good News Pest Solutions cares – we offer the safest, most organic pest control treatments to protect our clients, our pets and our environment. Check out our Go Green Perimeter Plus, and give us a call to schedule your first appointment!