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Remembering 9/11: It Always Begins at Home

Driving to work on what I refer to as "Rude 18" - some call it the more quaint "Route 18"-  I noticed this was an unusual morning.  Normally, the lanes were dense with cars, bumper to bumper, some weaving in and out of lanes.  Often, when a new car tried to enter via the onramp, the cars already in the lane would actually speed up so it couldn't merge.  Nice.  Friendly.  Really helping New Jersey's image.

But on this morning, no one was tailgating.  Cars were merging seamlessly.  Drivers were waving to each other, as if to say, "No, I insist, you go first. All this driving decorum would have been unsettling enough if not for what we had all experienced as a nation the day before.

This day was September 12th, 2001, and we were all still in shock, befuddled, beside ourselves across America.  After the twin towers fell, we wondered:  Who could be capable of such an atrocity?  Were we at war?  Should we send the children to school?

September 11th is a day that will live in infamy, our generation's Pearl Harbor.  An unprecedented and unprovoked assault on the psyche of the nation.  For a time, we came together to try and heal holistically.  If we are all Americans, we all need each other to grieve and go forward.

Most of the Muslims in the world are good people.  Very few are terrorists.  Only a minute percentage are willing to die themselves in order to destroy us.  I'll go even farther.  Most of the people in the entire world are good people.  Just trying to earn a decent day's wage, put food on the table, have a few small comforts of home.

The lesson I wish we had learned is that there's good and bad in every race, religion, country, even every individual.  Light and darkness.  Either can be tapped into.  It takes a small choice every day to work toward a better life but they add up and make a difference.  Let's remember the fallen on this 9/11, and honor their memory by doing the right thing, reflexively, each and every day, and teaching our children the same.  Expose them to the teachings of world religions and to the beauty of other cultures so they know what is true - no one is born a terrorist, an infidel, a genocidal despot.  It's only because good people stand by and say nothing that these weeds grow in our global garden.  Let's do some pruning today, starting from the inside, and make way for the crops that can feed families and the fragrant flowers that add so much color and beauty to our lives.  It always begins at home.