Update on 9/11

When I first decided to write something today, this was going to be a completely different article. Then I happened to glance at my last post nearly a year ago and saw that it was about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero.

I'm guessing that that debate has died down now given the state of our economy and the recent shenanigans in Congress. Most people are more concerned about what's in their pockets than whether or not different religions should be granted the same guarantee of free speech and religion as the rest of us.

This morning, I watched a short video on the memorial at Ground Zero scheduled to open on the tenth anniversary of that tragedy.

I was not ready for the visceral reaction I had when I saw the memorial. The shot was from an airplane looking straight down at the two squares on the footprint of the Twin Towers. There was a sinking in my stomach, and a profound sense of sadness overcame me. The final waterfall splashing down into the hole in the center of each perfect square reminded me of the many people who lost their lives that day, who became part of an earthly void. Some were never found, and this memorial will serve as their final resting place as well as a reminder to the rest of us.

And I wondered, have we really learned anything?