Monday, September 11
9/11: Five Years ON
I remembered the moment I learned about it like it was yesterday. When I woke up that Wednesday morning, Philippine time, it felt like any other midweek visits home from the boarding house that I usually had. Thinking back on it, I feel guilty because I was practically dancing at the thought of not having my HBO class that morning. (Not that I hated the class. It was the teacher that annoyed me so much it was unhealthy to see her at 7AM.)

My father was having breakfast and I was still groggy from sleep when I joined him. He effectively woke me up when he said that the World Trade Center got attacked. I was skeptical to believe it because my father is a joker. I told him it was impossible, that what he saw on TV the previous night was probably someone's idea sketch comedy, no matter the bad taste. He then told me that if I hadn't gone to bed early, we would have watched the news develop on CNN. That shut me up 'cause I'm big on CNN. I was still trying to digest this news when I asked him what the damage was like because all I could think about was Oklahoma--and that had been bad.

"Nothing's left," he said.

"What do you mean, nothing's left? A bomb could do some major damage but WTC is huge!" I still wasn't getting it.

"An airplane rammed into it."

"So it was an accident," I argued.

"Maybe one is an accident. But never two...the buildings collapsed after the planes made their hit."

I was struck speechless because the very Sunday before that, we watched a special in Discovery Channel about the world's tallest buildings and how engineering feats protect them from nature, making them virtually indestructible. It said there that an earthquake which is 9 on the Richter could not bring down the WTC. But of course, they hadn't expected terrorism in the cons column.

There were Filipinos who died there. But even if there hadn't been any, it still wouldn't change the way I feel about what happened. I won't ever stop having goosebumps or feel like crying when I think about or see pictures of 9/11. I won't ever stop thinking about it as my generation's worst waste of human lives. Utterly senseless.

I really wanna say more but someone's bound to take it the wrong way. It could sound potentially prejudiced so I'd rather not be like those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. I could hate people and I could rant about them but I would rather keep it to myself because there's a big chance I'd be hurting someone innocent with my views. And that'll
make me no better than those murderers.

There's nothing more powerful than prayer. So, I'll just go on praying--for those who perished in the attacks, for those who lost their lives trying to save others, even for those responsible.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Nicole said...

Very well put. It is very sad to remember, but at the same time it's something we should never forget.

Blogger Rowena said...

Hey you...that was a good post, really good...I wasn't around much to bloghop yesterday, but I'm reading everything now, I was very touched by your post sweetie...very touched.

I'll never forget.

Blogger Kookie said...

That's right...never forget.

That wasn't just an attack on America but an attack on Christianity as well. I don't care what others think but that's my take on it...

...but religion is not the best of topics so I'll shut up now.

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