If It Were That Easy…

Tomorrow will mark the fifth year since America woke up and found itself turning a new page in the book of its short history. September 11th was the new day of infamy and temporary despair. It was graphic in its devastation and it ripped open the heart of a country that was made vulnerable by its own success.

Lots of things have changed since that day. Brave men and women fight a half a world away in a seemingly never ending war. On our home turf, their domestic counterparts attempt to patrol our borders and secure our major modes of transportation. Closer to the ranks of regular citizens, we’ve been asked to roll with the punches. Be patient with these new measures of security. Have more and more of our lives open to scrutiny and view by those we elect to govern for us.

It hasn’t been fun. It hasn’t been pretty. It’s hard work.

But I believe that this kind of diligence has kept us from falling apart. I remember the months after attack. With emotions so raw and running high, the only thing people could do to keep sane was to talk it out. For an observer of human behavior like me, it was pretty eye opening.

You had people like my co-worker, Jane. Jane has relatives on the East Coast, and some who lived in the areas affected by the attack. Though she’s lived here for years – the attack left her almost in a constant state of panic. Each time the topic would come up, a sense of despair would wash over her. How could we go on after this? How can she ever feel safe again? Nothing would ever be the same! But even worse was that she wasn’t willing to entertain how to make it better. She was perfectly content living in fear and didn’t understand why I was being so complacent.

But, complacent isn’t the word I would have used. For Lenny and I, the attack had galvanized us to live our lives with more purpose. If we backed down from living and enjoying our lives, those that sought to destroy us would win. We were shocked, hurt, and outraged by what we witnessed. While we didn’t have any direct ties to the tragedy, we were numb. However, we decided that we were going to go forward with life.

Author Miguel De Cervantes once wrote, “Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes.”

Sitting around and bitching about how hard things are now doesn’t keep us safe. Trying to keep the color code straight on threat levels seems ridiculous. Getting through airport security seems harder than getting into a government installation. I joke around sometimes that the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act Rights means you actually lose your rights. Daily we are asked to side for or against the pundits in the media that want to praise or slay how things are being run.

But let’s not lose sight of the fact that we still have a lot of work to do. Securing the future of the next generation is going to take a whole lot of planning, patience, and most of all, change. We can’t sit back and let people who hate us push us into a corner. We have to push back.

And tomorrow – don’t forget to take a moment and remember. Then do the best thing you can to honor everyone who was lost: LIVE.