Why 9/11 Still Matters

Sept. 11. It was the day that was intended to tear America apart. Instead, it became the day that united us.

Everyone who experienced that day remembers where they were when they heard the news. I was watching TV while getting ready for work. It was a beautiful, sunny, early fall day and I was in a good mood. A really good mood.

I called my parents, 800 miles away, as soon as I heard. Together we sat and watched, while the footage played of the first plane, and then, to everyone's horror, the second plane, hitting the Twin Towers.

And then the towers fell.

I remember feeling so alone in that moment, witnessing the horror unfold. I wanted to be at my childhood home. I wanted to be with my parents. I wanted to be anywhere but sitting in my bedroom watching terror in action. So I met a couple friends downtown for breakfast. It was typically a noisy restaurant, but that day it was somber. Everyone's eyes stayed glued to the small TV screens, trying to get more news.

Another plane crashed in Pennsylvania. I knew people who lived in the area where the plane crashed. Then the Pentagon. Everyone wondered what would happen next. Everyone wondered if we would be next.

Those actions couldn't be undone. It was senseless, brutal injustice. It was the embodiment of evil. Almost 3000 people died while the world watched.

Yet we also saw heroism like we had never seen before. Firefighters rushing up the stairs to rescue those they could, knowing they might not come back down. Police officers and paramedics and civilians and executives and minimum-wage workers digging through rubble, looking for life. Stories of selfless airline passengers, who died so the rest of America could live.

Crime in New York City almost came to a complete stop in the immediate aftermath. We were kinder to each other. We celebrated our togetherness, instead of pointing out our differences. We were in this -- this journey of life -- together. We weren't divided. We were united. We were strong.

I pray we never go through another 9/11. But there's so much unrest in the world, I think we all feel a sense of vulnerability. I would like to think it's impossible for something like that to happen again, but I know better. The news all around us shows nations and people groups and religions and cultures battling each other out, each wanting the other one gone. This will surely be remembered as one of the most volatile times in human history.

But, we were strong before, and we can be strong again. Surely we don't need to go through another national tragedy to unite us. We can be better than that. Without the massive fatalities, the injuries, the toll it took on loved ones, the trauma -- without all of that, we can still come together. We can still stand united.

We can stop looking at differences and start looking at similarities. We can accept that people don't have to be just like us to be respected and treated with kindness. We can celebrate our uniqueness. We can cooperate.

We can do better. We did it before and we can do it again.

It starts with each of us.

It starts with me.