9-11 Question

  

   Yesterday marked twenty years since planes hit the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. A third plane was forced down in Pennsylvania by the passengers. Most people believe that this plane was supposed to hit the United States Capitol Building.

   I saw several posts from various people asking the question, where were you on 9-11? I know where I was. I was at work. I'd just started a 12 hours shift at a pharmacy that opened the previous January. I got a call from by boss telling me what happened. The internet existed, but not like is is now. I did not have access to a TV. The brother of our technician had been killed in a car wreck the day before. My tech and her mother had been able to catch one of the last flights out of Minneapolis-St. Paul before all planes were grounded. Unable to fly back, they rented a car and drove the cremated remains of their son and brother back to Minnesota.

   Every generation has one or more moments in time where you remember where you were. For C, it was the day Kennedy was assassinated (at school, he remembers a teacher crying) and when man landed on the moon (he was working at a gas station and saw it on TV). For me it was the space shuttle Challenger explosion. (in high school after lunch)

   One person I know asked a different question. He felt that after 20 years, a better question was, Who have you become? He's right. That is a good question. 

   My particular belief is that the events and trials that come into our lives are meant to do something. They are meant to help us become a better and more Christlike person.  The purpose of life is to become someone better and (for me) to make the place around me a better place even if only in a small way.

   It's something well worth thinking pondering. Who have we become?

   The first thing that popped into my head is that we have become a group of people that doesn't care about others. I'll give you an example. After 9-11 greater security measures where put into place to prevent terrorists from flying and bringing explosives on board. Before boarding a plane one has to have specific ID, have carry on bags searched and remove your shoes. I have had to completely disassemble C's CPAP machine and put my knitting needles in a separate container to show security agents I'm not carrying any sort of explosive or weapon.

   No one liked these procedures and some of the body searches can feel very intrusive. There was some grumbling, but we all did it. After all it was to keep others safe. 2,996 people died in the 9-11 attacks. (This is just the people killed by the attacks themselves, not counting deaths of first responders, fire fighters, police and those helping in the aftermath.) We did not want something like this to happen again. If that meant waiting longer to board or having to be more mindful in packing, that is ok. we are keeping others (and ourselves) safe.

   Here we are 20 years later. We are still in the midst of the COVID- 19 pandemic. Many of the things medical professionals have recommended we do in order to keep everyone safe have been criticized and rejected by some segments of the population. There are even people who believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax, the virus doesn't exists.

   I understand that wearing a mask is uncomfortable. I dislike having to wear one and I have to wear one when I am working. I understand that restrictions on gathering etc., have put a damper on the plans of many during the last year and a half. But these are things that we have to do in order to keep ourselves and others safe. 656,318 people have died of illness caused by COVID-19 (info taken from CDC data tracker). We were willing to do what it takes to protect people from domestic terror attacks when 2,996 lives were lost. Are we willing to do what it takes to prevent the loss of more than 656,318 lives from disease?

   Who have we become?