Jake’s Life

We all know what devastation occurred six years ago today. Right around the time I was leaving work this morning marks the hour (PST) that two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, another into the Pentagon, and another onto in a field, missing its intended target of the White House.

I was house-sitting at the time that it actually happened for a friend of my roommate’s. My roommate Leslie called me and told me to turn on the TV. I remember the chills that ran down my spine laying there on the couch watching this, and couldn’t help but look up to the sky when I left the house that day. I had never seen anything like this before, watching hundreds of people die on live television, and to this day have not. Each time they replayed the footage that morning I felt thousands of families grieving for loved ones, crying and screaming, in pain that they should never have to feel. I felt terror for those who were in the buildings and who occupied the streets down below as the planes impacted and debris—the finally the buildings themselves–fell.

There are still a lot of questions regarding these incidents and accompanying theories from the rational to the just downright crazy. While we may know what the results of the incidents were, many are not confident that they know what happened, why it happened, etc. Truthfully, I would love to have these answers but it is unlikely that I ever will. Many aren’t satisfied with this stance and seek to uncover the truth (or their own truths) about that morning and the events which led up to it. That’s their right and it’s yours too. While questions are natural and high priority due to the magnitude of this event, please don’t lose sight of those who died that day and since then due to related conditions and illnesses. We lost a lot of Americans that day, and other countries lost their citizens too.

If you aren’t the type of person who acknowledges these losses on a daily basis in an understanding of how our world really is, take a moment and at least do it today. Don’t just do it about what happened on 9/11/2001 either, do it about all losses like this and the injustice that accompanies them. Better yet, do something about it.