The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Remembering September 11, 2001 Where were you on November 22, 1963, the day president John F Kennedy was killed? Until two years ago this was the favourite "remembering" question in North America for those of us who were around then. I remember the day vividly, sitting in an English class at United College, now The University of Winnipeg. Professor Swayze came in, tearfully announced that The President of the United States had been assassinated, mumbled something about the forces of evil and dismissed all the classes. Walking down Portage Avenue, loudspeakers were amplifying the radio reports about the murder in Dallas. Since 9/11, 2001, the question has shifted to the terrorist attack on New York and Washington. Eating breakfast and fixated on the weather channel, the phone rang. It was friend and neighbor Armar, shouting "turn on the news, the terrorists are attacking New York!" We watched continuously as the stations played and replayed the airplanes hitting the Twin Towers, unleashing the chain of events leading to the war on terror, the Iraqui conflict and the economic turmoil created by this momentous event. It is now two years since this morning of terror, and as time passes, memories dim and the event seems less horrific. One should not forget the acts by a few well-trained and well-financed fanatics and the way these events have shaped our world since then. Such acts are repeated by other suicide bombers who, without hesitation, will blow up a bus or caf full of innocent men, women, and children and be praised as "martyrs" to the "cause". Saddam Hussein paid off the martyr's families in attacks against Israel Ð which did not endear him to the Israelies or the Americans. What about the human carnage of 9/11, the nearly 3,000 dead and the effects on their families and extended families? In an article written near Christmas, 2001, American writer Michelle Malkin mourns the children killed in the attacks, and those who lost a parent calling them "Angels on loan from God". She notes that eight children from three to 11 were murdered on the hijacked airlines: Christine, Jiliana, David, Zoe, Dana, Bernard, Rodney and Asia, plus an unknown number of unborn lives "in the wombs of mothers fatally trapped in smoke-filled staircases and crumbling offices at the World Trade Centre." Malkin, in detail, explained why the children were on the aircraft Ð some were going to Disneyland, others to Australia with their parents, and others with their teachers on an educational trip. She mourns the thousands of children who were left behind, children of firefighters, policemen and businessmen Ð graphic descriptions such as: "Jake Siller, 2, clutches a photo of his firefighter dad and asks "Daddy home? Daddy home?É Robert Shay, 5, stuck stars in his windows "so my daddy can see where I am". And every night Matthew, 9, Erin, 6, Mark, 4, and Grace Brady, 2, recite a prayer taught to them by their father, a business executive who died at ground zero: "Thank you Jesus for the love you bringÉ Thank you Jesus for everything." Malkin concludes that the "Angels on loan from God" will not have died in vain if all parents are grateful every day for the gift of lifeÉ and "the dancing sugarplum dreams of innocents ". The world has changed considerably since 9/11, 2001. Friendships and alliances of nations have changed and economies have been hit hard. As a great number of people have stopped flying or even traveling, airlines have drifted into bankruptcy and the tourist industry is in tatters world-wide, affecting thousands of jobs. The Americans continue to bear the brunt of the war on terror which seems to never end in Afghanistan and Iraq, and of course the peaceniks and protesters are becoming louder even in the U.S.A. where 67% of the population continues to support the president in the Iraqui war. It has been said that momentous events shape the world: - the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand which triggered World War 1: - the League of Nations failing to stop Hitler early when he entered the Rhineland, which resulted in millions of deaths in World War 11: - the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which ushered in the nuclear age: - and one could add the terrorist attack on the innocent people in New York and Washington which launched the 'war on terror'. History will tell, but all indications are that 9/11 will be remembered for generations as was the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the events previously mentioned. Where were you on September 11, 2001?
