9/11

I know, I know, I'm really quite late to be posting something like this -- and for the record, it was never my intention to do so. I thought about it on Thursday, but when the day slipped quickly by, and I the next thing I knew it was Friday the 12th of September, I figured that it was probably for the best I just move on and write something much more "Davies" (i.e., very light-hearted and skirting any and every type of issue that might be deemed 'serious') but seeing how I'm spending my Saturday night sitting in my bedroom feeling like my sinuses are about to explode, I figured I might as well.

As you all well know, this last Thursday marked the 7th anniversary of the attacks on September 11th. It was interesting to be living and working in our Nation's Capitol for that anniversary, especially juxtaposed with the fact I was living half-way across the world when the actual attacks happened. I was living in Denmark as a missionary for the LDS Church at the time, and that made for an interesting viewpoint of the whole event. All of us Americans living in Denmark at the time felt a sense of regret that we weren't at home, getting through this together with the rest of our country. Yet, it was amazing to see first hand, the support and compassion that the Danish people showed. We had strangers recognize us as American and stop us in the streets to offer their condolences, and make sure that our family and friends were all okay. Not once in the year before, or the year after, was I ever approached and talked to by a Dane (well, by a sober/sane Dane)... It was legitimately shocking, not that the Danes aren't good people, because they most certainly are; but it was incredibly unusual for them to pull their wall down and approach complete strangers (strangers they knew might start talking to them about God or religion at that) and show unfiltered and genuine empathy. It was reassuring to see a country like Denmark, one that receives little to no attention from America, pour out their hearts support for our Country as a whole, stand in candle-lit vigils in the town square, surround the American embassy with flowers (as pictured here), and even approach and offer comfort to strange 19 year-old American kids.

This post isn't simply for me to wax nostalgia, but I wanted to just briefly share how living there at that time has made for an interesting personal view of not only 9/11, but of our World. How our World is, and how it could be...

Anyways, being across the Atlantic, I didn't feel the effects any less, but I experienced the personal/internal rebuilding in a very different manner than many of you probably did; and while I will always be grateful for the compassion of the Danish people, I've always felt like I needed to make an extra effort to connect with my fellow Americans when it comes to the subject of 9/11. So every time the anniversary comes, I try to make some sort of extra effort to make up for that feeling of distance.

Which brings us back to Thursday.

They dedicated the new memorial at the Pentagon early that morning, an event I found out later I would have had the opportunity to attend had one of the guys I work for had my number programmed in my phone. Unfortunate indeed, but on the way home from the Capitol, I decided to hop off of the train at the Pentagon stop and just wander down to the new Memorial. I had my camera with me and snapped a few quick shots of it, but unfortunately - not only do I lack the photography skills of some members of my family, but my camera is definitely not one that is going to produce anything all that great regardless of my personal skill... So the pictures below are not going to convey what the memorial looks like at all, but take my word for it that it was a very cool memorial. Each of the little fin-like things coming up from out of the ground represent one of the people who died in the Pentagon or on the plane that struck it. They're lined up according to the year that person was born, and each fin has the name of the victim inscribed on end of it, and each has its own small pool of water underneath. Some of the interns went to the monument last night, and I was told it looks amazing at night, which I wouldn't doubt in the least bit.

They had a musical tribute that night, I didn't stay for much of it, but this is the stage where the naval band was performing.

So as I crunched through the gravel, looking at the years the victims were born, reading some of the names, watching military men and women wandering through the memorial looking ever-stoic, watching children run around completely unaware of their surrounding, watching the ever present security force, and just taking in my surroundings, I started to think about who these people were. Who their friends were. Who there family was. What kind of things they liked to do. I let my mind wander, and tried to envision what it must've been like here and in New York City 7 years ago when I was walking the streets of Copenhagen, just trying to wrap my head around what I'd heard. I tried to think of what defines "heroism" in times like those, and subsequently, times like these.

I hesitate to go on like this, because it's true that 9/11 is still quite fresh on many of our minds, and it can be a somewhat dicey subject to linger upon, especially in the political climate of an election year, with politicians or political parties conjuring the memory of those events for their own benefits; I think it's just as important now as it ever was to use the memory of those days not as a rallying cry for any type of political ideology. Not as a point or rebuttal in an argument. Not as a "chilling reminder" or anything of that sort. No, as I was leaving the memorial two days ago, the thoughts swimming through my mind were not of political ideologies, candidates, parties, or points. It was the drive of the human will. The inter-connectivity of mankind. The perseverance of us all. That's the lesson I like to take away from those events. No matter how much we enjoy to wallow in cynicism or self-pity sometimes, and no matter how much we can viciously disagree on so many things, there are common threads that run through us all. Hate and fear can give way to something much better.

Call me naive, call me short sighted, call me a foolish bleeding heart, I really don't care... Call it hokey and contrived, you're entitled to believe that... I believe in optimism, I believe in hope and a better future, and if there's one thing I choose to pull out of the pit of tragedy that was that day, that's what I'm going to take from it.

I stumbled upon this (http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2008/09/the-daily-sho-1.html) just today, it's the first episode of the Daily Show aired after 9/11, in its entirety. Jon Stewart is one of the few TV guys who when he talks politics, I listen. He's a lot wiser than people give him credit for, and I thought his words in the first clip were incredible. Please watch at least that part if you have a chance. (just figured I could throw the intro clip right on here, enjoy.)


This is not at all what I was expecting it to be, I haven't just gone off like that on a blog in a very very long time, so I apologize for anyone who actually read through that whole thing, and is now wondering what one earth I was actually talking about.

Don't worry, I'll post something much less heavy tomorrow.