Where were you?

I remember it like it was yesterday. 19 years ago I was 24 – almost 25 – and was at a place where I could sleep rather late into the morning. My radio was set to 1320 WJAS (the nostalgia music station; not the drivel on there now) and I would naturally be waking up with Jack Bogut, Chris Shovlin, and Carol Finelli coming through the speaker.

I almost missed it altogether that morning, but at about 8:49 I woke up to Jack and Chris talking about a plane that hit the World Trade Center – initially reported as a small prop plane if I recall correctly. I went downstairs to the TV and saw what happened from there. I was glued to the TV while simultaneously calling people and trying to pinch myself to make sure this was all real.

The next day this country was, for the first time in ages, united. We all came together, the world (those who weren’t against us) offered their support and there didn’t seem to be any sort of adversity. It seemed everyone proudly flew the flag and neighbor helped neighbor. It lasted for a while; then it sort of faded as time went on.

It seems to me that once things calmed down from the actual event, things went downhill. It also seems to me that no matter which pundit you follow – right or left – the downfall of the patriotism we saw 19 years ago came from the rhetoric spewed forth. Radio stations, TV stations, newspapers all fell for it too… and eventually the topic which once brought us together morphed into topics related and not related to the original and eventually tore us apart.

We see it daily in social media. The news sources (TV, radio and otherwise) post a story and people comment, people counter-comment and you might as well be in the wrestling ring. Mind you, most people base their opinions from the headline they see on their wall and don’t even click to read to get the whole story.

It is particularly true during this pandemic. I mean like it or lump it, we’re still in the thick of it and probably will be for some time. But I don’t have the same warm and fuzzy feeling I had 19 years ago. Instead I feel that we have sunk to a new low in terms of how we treat others. Where it began? I don’t know. How do we solve it? I don’t know that either. But here’s a good place to start… remember where YOU were 19 years ago today.

This is a good day to turn off all the media you have (he says as he sits among three computers and a smartphone), or, at the very least, step away from it for an hour or two. Skip the 24-hour news cycle, the rhetoric and the opinions from the pundits. Skip the arguments on Facebook that will only result in a stalemate, it will all be there tomorrow. Just stop and remember those who lost their lives 19 years ago and remember those who have lost their lives to COVID-19.