The day that changed America and that we remember each year. September 11, 2001. It has as much impact on your life now as ever, even if you’re too young to remember, to cynical to have feelings about it, or too far gone in this world to care.
For me it’s still a big deal and one of the most defining days in my lifetime. Not just defining for the American psyche but for how our world was to operate from then on. How it still does.
The implications of 9/11 are so vast and encompassing it would, and has, take thousands of articles and discussions and debates to cover it all. But that’s maybe not the best thing to do on the day of.
Today I think we just remember the pain that was inflicted, the losses that were suffered, and honor the countless lives forever changed… or ended.
The ‘Bell of Hope’ in New York City was a gift from England to America, one year after that horrific day. It was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the people of New York and all these United States as a memorial and tribute.
The bell was forged in the same foundry that cast the Liberty Bell and Big Ben.
Every September 11th it is rung as a solemn tribute and remembrance. The sound of that bell always gets to me. I hear in it all those voices, thousands, tens of thousands. The ones who cried out in pain as the buildings crashed down around them. The ones who gasped in shock as they watched from all over the city, or on TV around the world. The ones who wailed in sorrow when they realized a loved one was gone.
It’s their voices, and all of ours, that ring in this bell.
Amen.
Here is a live stream of Memorial at Ground Zero.
I don’t want to add too much to what is here. But please feel free to share your own thoughts and remembrances below.