#424 – Dick Bernard: The 9-11-01 anniversary and the change we desperately need….

Nine days from now is the Anniversary-Impossible-to-Forget: 9-11-01.
I have been preparing my own reflection that I’ll publish next Thursday in this space. It is basically complete, and I doubt it will change, much, in the next few days.
But it has been a real struggle to compose.
Next weeks post will begin with two photographs I took of the World Trade Centers at the end of June, 1972.
I was in a new job, enroute to my first Convention in then-seedy Atlantic City NJ, and we made it into a family trip from Minnesota which took us to places like Montreal, coastal Maine, Boston, Old Sturbridge Village, New York and, finally, Philadelphia. We saw much of American history in that trip. The family flew west from Philly, and I went to my Convention, and on to a 27 year career with my new employer.
The World Trade Center Twin Towers that June looked essentially identical to how they looked for the next 28 years. The complex itself was not yet complete. Wikipedia: “Ground-breaking for the World Trade Center took place on August 5, 1966. The North Tower was completed in December, 1972, and the South Tower was finished in July, 1973.”
Twenty-eight years elapsed.
Then came September 11, 2001 and the ten long years that have followed…years where we compounded their destruction thousands of times over. The World Trade Center became a symbol of and justification for never-ending-War.
I’ll talk more about those ten years next week, but in the interim it seems worthwhile to reflect on what has happened to us as a people between WTC ground-breaking in 1966, and today, 45 years later.
In my opinion, there has been a profound change in “we, the people”, and it is a very negative and self-destructive one.
In so many ways we have dis-honored the memory of those who died September 11, 2001.
We have been killing ourselves.
In following days there will be endless news about 9-11.
On September 11, on the site of the former towers, a new Place of Peace is to be dedicated. Let’s work to make what was turned into a symbol for War 10 years ago into what it is now said to symbolize: a Place of Peace.
I’d suggest we individually reflect on what has happened to us as a people since those Twin Towers began to take shape 45 years ago, and even more important what has happened since they were destroyed 10 years ago. I’d suggest we each become the change we wish to see in this world.
More on this topic at this space, including the photos, on September 9, 2011.

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