It’s still 9/11 for another minute where I live, so even though this post is later than I wanted it to be, it’s still timely.
On Friday I had the opportunity to film a high school football game ? for my job as a camera operator. ? The game ended up being a close one, finishing 36-33 in favor of the home team, and it was competitive throughout. My favorite part of the event, however, had nothing to do with the play on the field.
During various moments of the contest, the fans for each team would chant “U-S-A! U-S-A!” instead of their regular team-specific cheers, in recognition of the unity our country showed rebounding from the 9/11 terrorist attacks 20 years ago. Most of those chanting were high school students who weren’t alive when those attacks took place, but they still recognized how significant it was that their fellow countrymen didn’t yield to fear after the events of that day.
It hit me as especially significant because I am old enough to remember when 9/11 took place. There was a lot of uncertainty afterwards, but the determination that so many people displayed then, believing that it was our duty to combat fear and bounce back stronger as a nation than we had ever been before, was truly inspirational to me as a boy living during that time. ?? Therefore, remembering 9/11 this year means a lot to me now, for it brings to mind all sorts of people that I saw, both on television and in my everyday life, who would not yield to fear, no matter how uncertain or threatening things seemed at the time.
In the past few years of remembering 9/11, I think I’ve focused so much on the tragedy of the loss from that day that I forgot about the resiliency of the recovery effort afterwards. It is a tragedy we never want repeated and that we ought to stay vigilant against, but there is also a lot of hope that can be gained from the way so many Americans, whether they were “important” or “famous” or seemingly “ordinary”, made up their minds to not let fear win control of their lives nor their country. During my lifetime there has not been a greater display of American unity than in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and my prayer this year is for that spirit of determined unity to return to America without another terrorist attack taking place.
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