One of my memories of 9-11-01 was being back at home with my mom, and her saying "I think that's enough" and turning off the TV. Like everyone else, we'd had the TV on all day. It was mid or late afternoon, and the media didn't have anything new to say. They were just replaying footage and speculating on what the larger picture was. I'd already seen the towers collapse and the Pentagon burning live on TV at school before I came home. I was a sophomore in high school and my sister was off at college. My mom knew that they weren't going to have anything new to report, and we were both getting shell shocked. After turning off the TV, we talked together a little about what had happened, tried to make sense of it, then went about trying to keep ourselves busy. My dad worked at the Navy Annex just up the hill from the Pentagon, and he wasn't home yet. I'm not even sure if we had heard from him yet -- phone lines were pretty spotty and he was busy being a hero (he wanted to run into the Pentagon and help pull people out, but the first responders [wisely] weren't letting people without proper gear into the building. He "settled" for getting a communications headquarters set up down the road and helped to track down who was and wasn't accounted for.)
I kept reflecting back on my mom's wisdom today. I was traveling from Denver to Syracuse via Chicago, so I had plenty of time in airports, and though I was thankfully never stuck by a TV, I caught bits and pieces of 9-11 coverage. If it weren't for football, I think that's all that the TV stations would have played today (never thought I'd be grateful for football). I know that practically all the stations would be playing tributes or commentary or TV movies "remembering" 9-11. I read most of yesterday's newspaper (didn't get around to finishing it yesterday) and all of today's, which both had a number of very well written pieces on 9-11. Altogether, it made for an overwhelming and emotional day. And I can't help but feel that the media was a bit too heavy-handed in dealing with the anniversary.
So, that's enough, America. Go spend time with your families. Pray. Remember.
