I grew up visiting German concentration camps as early as 2 years old. I didn’t completely understand why I always felt removed until I read your essay. While I know survivors, I didn’t live through it in real time as I did 9/11. For you the trauma of personally witnessing 9/11 unfortunately will always be there. That innocence you felt going to the party is gone, maybe forever. With active shooter drills it sure seems so.
This time with your father is such a gift, especially since you both chose to make it happen. You didn’t need the recent losses, horrible tragedies, to make this move towards each other. Enjoy every moment.
Memories and history are all colored and rewritten by time and subsequent events. I often see 9/11 written about as the time we collectively lost our innocence as a country, but America was birthed in blood and greed: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the endless wars on terror, the Cold War, the Great Depression, the Great Recession. Was there ever a time when this country wasn't involved in bloodshed or economic crises? The newest generation is inheriting a planet increasingly engulfed in floods and flames, a teetering democracy, a gutting of civil rights, a cold civil war, the dawn of the pandemic age, historic income inequality, and growing domestic terrorism. 9/11 felt like a rip in the fabric of time, but the horrors heaped on a generation just learning to walk is heartbreaking in its own way.
I grew up visiting German concentration camps as early as 2 years old. I didn’t completely understand why I always felt removed until I read your essay. While I know survivors, I didn’t live through it in real time as I did 9/11. For you the trauma of personally witnessing 9/11 unfortunately will always be there. That innocence you felt going to the party is gone, maybe forever. With active shooter drills it sure seems so.
This time with your father is such a gift, especially since you both chose to make it happen. You didn’t need the recent losses, horrible tragedies, to make this move towards each other. Enjoy every moment.
Memories and history are all colored and rewritten by time and subsequent events. I often see 9/11 written about as the time we collectively lost our innocence as a country, but America was birthed in blood and greed: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the endless wars on terror, the Cold War, the Great Depression, the Great Recession. Was there ever a time when this country wasn't involved in bloodshed or economic crises? The newest generation is inheriting a planet increasingly engulfed in floods and flames, a teetering democracy, a gutting of civil rights, a cold civil war, the dawn of the pandemic age, historic income inequality, and growing domestic terrorism. 9/11 felt like a rip in the fabric of time, but the horrors heaped on a generation just learning to walk is heartbreaking in its own way.