A few thoughts on 9/11

As nothing terribly note-worthy happened at work today, I thought I'd dedicate this post to a few of my random thoughts.

Seven years ago, I was an 18-year-old college freshman, one month into what would become an eight-year stint in a state 2500 miles away from the town I grew up in. In the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I was in General Chemistry lab, oxidizing magnesium to form magnesium oxide. When I finished the assigned exercise and wrote it up in my nifty little lab book, I headed back to the dorms, where I was intercepted by one of my friends, who told me that we were under attack, that two airplanes had flown into the World Trade Center. Not believing at first, I joined the masses of people watching CNN, still not quite believing that this was real. Classes were cancelled for that afternoon (not that I had one anyway), and roughly half of the students and professors gathered in the Campus Green for prayers and discussions about what was happening.

Not long ago, Mom and I talked about how long it would take before all but a studious few forgot the significance of September 11. I said it would be less than a generation; after all, how many people today know the significance of December 7? If it is someday declared a national holiday, how long would it be before it was only known as a day off work or school? If it doesn't become a holiday, who would remember it at all?

I don't think it's going to take a generation for us as a nation to forget. Here I am, on active duty in DC for the month, and there is little indication that today is any different than any other. Yesterday, I overheard LTC Cavicchia talking about the invitation-only dedication at the Pentagon; even then, her primary concern was how the traffic would be around the Pentagon, as roads will be closed for the event. This morning, I had gone on a run and gotten dressed for the day while watching the news, and the first I even realized the date was when I checked my watch to figure out how long it would be before I get my next paycheck. I went to work at an Army base, and the only thing that was different was that half of the parking lot around the commissary was closed for a parking-lot sale tomorrow.

I'm not saying that our lives haven't changed in seven years; they certainly have, but in most cases, we've grown accustomed to them. Security changes at airports, once seeming so strict, are now commonplace. Going to war seemed like such a big deal at the time, but we have grown accustomed to seeing troops going off to Iraq or Afghanistan, and now the talk in the Army medical community is not "if I'm deployed...", but "when I'm deployed..." Gas prices have certainly gone up, but how much of that has to do with conflicts in the Middle East and how much is the natural course of things is unknown.

I did not join the Army as a result of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, but I know people--doctors--who did, who saw what happened and swore that they would do their part in making sure that nothing like that happens again. For them, this was a life-changing event, and they will never forget. Can the rest of us say the same?