Editor’s Note: Given that Court Watch’s subscriber base has grown significantly since this post, we’ve reupping our short thoughts on the last year’s 9/11 anniversary for the new audience. We hope everyone takes a moment today to reflect on those lost.
(Image: Law enforcement badges on the wall of O’Hara’s)
There was a crying woman alone on a bench five blocks from the where two towering buildings once stood. She didn’t want to tell me her story but appreciated the company when I sat on her bench and provided nothing but another human’s quiet presence. A firefighter in my hotel bar who left one whiskey shot at the bar untouched for an hour while he drank and told me about his old friends. His eyes inadvertently darted occasionally waiting in vain for a colleague who went up the stairs that day and never came down to take that stiff drink. As I look outside, O’Hara’s is currently packed with the boys in blue and the folks in red. But it feels the importance fades too quickly. 23 years after the terrorist attack on America, we are at a moment of forget. Most of my students were not born before 9/11. They were not shaped by the day but interested yet emotionally detached about the events afterwards. I spend some time talking through the attack, but it gives off the air of encyclopedic and robotic summary and not something that shook me to my very core.
A lot has changed in the last more than two decades. We have come together, we have fought, we have survived but, save for the far too many folks intimately affected by it, most have moved on.
However today, right here and now, there exist a few blocks in New York City where hallowed ground still resides.
May their memories be a blessing and may we never accept callous forget.