September 12, 2011
Christ United Methodist Ministry Center
“Christ in the Heart of San Diego”
3295 Meade Avenue
San Diego, CA 92116
(619) 284-9205
Pastorgraphs: “Remembering”
I heard a neurologist say last week that every memory we have gets filtered and somewhat altered, based upon what we know since the event happened. In other words, when we dig up a memory from childhood, it may not be exactly the way it really was because we refine our memories based upon our experiences since the event. It’s like reading the last chapter of a book before reading the first chapter; we know how it all turned out, and that impacts our memory and perspective.
That proved true this weekend as I watched the actual footage of 9/11. Like everyone else, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news the first plane had crashed into the World Trade Center tower. Maybe it is a good thing our memories get filtered, because over the past decade, I have sanitized the awful events in my mind. Seeing the first-hand video footage and the sheer horror experienced by the victims and survivors brought everything back full strength to my memory, uncensored and unaltered by time. (As an amateur historian, I wish we had such actual footage of the great events in history to get the real story.)
Many of the survivor stories touched me, especially the story of one New York Fire Department Captain. He said he would never forget the look on the face of a NYFD Lieutenant and his men as they rushed into the ground floor of the WTC tower. He asked his Captain what they should do. The Captain said, “Go upstairs and try to save as many people as possible”. Dutifully, and without complaint, the men did their job. The Captain said he will never forget the look in the Lieutenant’s eyes. “I never saw that Lieutenant again” he said. And with tears welling in his own eyes, he added, “That Lieutenant was my brother.”
And let’s not forget the story of bravery by the other “9” that day (Flight 93). Literally thousands of stories like these need to be retold, unfiltered by time, to keep fresh and accurate the memory of 9/11.
When Anita and I first moved to San Diego in late 1998, we rented an apartment near Qualcomm Stadium. Every Friday night, a group of young Arab men, as many as a dozen, would meet in the apartment across from us. They were loud and rude. Some nights I would get up and look across at the apartment and see the men, all dressed in Middle Easter attire, being served what seemed to be a lavish banquet. When their meal and meeting was finished, usually around 2:00 a.m., they would leave the apartment making as much noise as possible, waking many of us for the third or fourth time each night. I recall telling Anita that not only did I get an impression of rudeness, but a feeling of pure evil from those young men.
The Friday night meetings continued until Anita and I moved to our new home in Spring Valley in December 2000. But I had the same feeling of pure evil on 9/11. Then, in a conversation with an FBI Agent, I learned that most of the operations for 9/11 were made in San Diego by an al Qaida operative, who recruited volunteers for the death mission in San Diego. The recruits, he said, were treated to lavish banquets and promises of money and rewards in paradise for their sacrifice. Of course, even those memories are colored by what I know now.
Each generation of Americans has a rallying call to remember. “Remember the Alamo. Remember the Maine. Remember Pearl Harbor.” And now we add, “Remember 9/11”.
Though our memories fade and we instinctively sanitize the most horrible parts, may we never forget 9/11.
Devotedly, Parson Bill
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