Where Were You?

This morning A and I went outside to hang our American flag. We put it up to commemorate the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York City and Washington D.C. I once asked my parents where they were when they heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor during WWII. Even though they were small children, they remembered very specific details about the day.

As for my own memories of September 11, my then-boyfriend, now husband had come to pick me up from my apartment, to walk me to work on his way to class, as always. It was about 7:45 and J asked if I had heard what happened that morning. His roommates or neighbors had been watching the news and heard the initial reports. Things were still very unclear as to what was happening. As we walked up the long flight of stairs past the BYU botany pond to campus, everyone in the busy 8:00 rush was talking about it. I remember one kid on his cell phone calling some far away friend to incredulously share the news.

At work it was all we could do to keep ourselves focused. We were glued to the internet and any updates available. CNN.com, thenytimes.com, and thewashingtonpost.com stick out in my mind. There was no live streamed video, just pictures and mostly second hand accounts of the events. We knew that planes were down, but some missing. We knew that people were trapped. We knew that nothing was certain as far as how safe we were every where else.

It was a Tuesday and BYU's traditional weekly devotional was canceled and the university president, President Merrill J. Bateman, spoke instead. There is something incredibly reassuring having a general authority speak at such a complicated and confusing time. J and I usually attended the devotionals together every week and it had been a while since we had seen such a packed house in the Marriott Center. President Bateman reassured us that we would be fine, that we would figure this out, and that we had to proceed the best we could under the circumstances.

I went to other classes that afternoon, knowing that the twin towers had fallen, the Pentagon had been hit and a plane had crashed somewhere else, ultimate destination still unknown. One or two classes were canceled. One went on as planned, but with much less enthusiasm.

By the end of the day, we all just sat mesmerized by the reports on TV and the images of people jumping out of windows, huge clouds of black billowy smoke and ash swirling through Manhattan, and the beginnings of the loss of life reports.

Eventually the "bring the story home" journalism started to touch our BYU campus. Reports of the BYU interns in the affected areas having gone out to dinner together the night before and all getting such bad food poisoning that none of them could go to work the next day and people's cars not starting or decisions to take the day off from work unexpectedly were now common. I had one friend who worked high in one of the twin towers and just a week and a half earlier left his high-paced job to find something a little more family friendly. While I know that as followers of Jesus Christ and members of His Church we are not immune from danger and heartache, it is remarkable to think how many people were protected and able to avoid harms way.

I've always been a very patriotic person and often get choked up when I sing the Star Spangled Banner or say the pledge. I am grateful for a nation of such resilience and such desire to overcome. This campaign year has brought a lot of questions about our national security and the well being of our nation with regards to our economy and health care and quality of life.They all talk a lot about change. In the last seven years since those attacks, so many things in my life have changed: my marital status, my economic situation, my parental status, my residence to name a few. But one thing never changes: we are a people who will rise above. We have a spirit born within us that will not let us give in or give up.

What a legacy we have. Will we pay the necessary price to perpetuate that? Will we teach our children to love our country and take pride in the values, opportunities and challenges that come with citizenship in this great community? Perhaps that was one of the great lessons that the 9/11 attacks taught us. We are a group with much in common, regardless of out differences. To borrow words from Paul in the New Testament, we are no longer strangers, but fellow citizens in the kingdom of God.

So wherever you were that day, where are you now? And where do you want to be in the future of this great nation? President Gordon B. Hinckley often said, it isn't enough to be good. We must be good for something.

Let's go be good for something this year. Let's not let 9/11 anniversary #8 come without having made our communities a better, safer, more optimistic place to be. Let us find within us that same strength and pride and open our arms a little wider to expand our personal communities. Let's do it!