A Tribute to 9/11 ten years on...

The legacy of 9/11 should be life and humanity not death and destruction.

Ten years on from the day and the event that robbed the western world of it’s innocence, the world has stopped to remember; the dead, the living, the grieving and the lost.

I watched the Naudet brothers documentary two years ago and again last night. The documentary brought the eyes of the world inside the Twin Towers. Originally, the brothers set out to document the growth of a firefighter from boy to man over nine months. The boy, ‘Tony’ had a foreboding wish to experience a fire, to prove to his men and to himself that he could do the job. That he could be a hero.

Then September 11 came.

Then his youthful optimism vanished.

The Naudet brothers hoped to watch a boy metamorphose into a man in nine months.

In just nine hours, it happened.

The graphic documentary walks viewers into the lobby of the Twin Towers. Hundreds of workers rushed down the fire stairs. Workers bodies were burnt, grown men were reduced to tears.

Fear was in everyone’s eyes. Hope was in everyone’s hearts. Prayers were on everyone’s lips. Loved ones were in everyone’s thoughts. Survival was in everyone’s steps.

 
People leaped from buildings not in an attempt of suicide but in a grand act of bravery and hope. They were leaps of faith in optimism.  It was lovingly done in hope of reaching their families and escaping the hellish flames that engulfed the buildings.
 
Love drove the firefighters to put their lives selflessly at the mercy (or mercilessness) of the flames that rose as the buildings fell.People were crushed with their spirits.

Each firefighter that day ran to the towers in the hope of saving just one life and when the buildings had collapsed, these men courageously rummaged through rubble in search of a body…any body, in hope that they could bury one person with dignity; that one family could have a proper funeral. They never once stopped in their struggle to contemplate that that funeral could be their own.

Nearly 3000 people died that day.

It was somebody’s father. Someone’s mother. Sister. Brother. Daughter. Son. Cousin. Friend.

All these people had hoped that time would heal. I think for New Yorkers, time neither healed or comforted because the running tributes today show hearts still broken, still grieving and still waiting for answers.

I was in New York this time last year and visited the site. The mood becomes instantly somber as you walk through the Financial District. The people are quieter. They are more courteous but also more weary of their surroundings. They jump at sirens. There is a frailty in their faces and a fragility in their responses.

It was sunny the day I visited, but nothing was bright about that stopover. It is still and it is devastating. Families visited the memorial wall the day that I went, thousands of names were engraved into the wall, they are forever etched in people’s memories too.

Many of us still remember where we were the day the news was announced. 9/11 is a day we’ll never forget. The hope is that the lessons will also stay just as potent.

Though life can’t be said to be better for the grieving, what 9/11 brought to New York was a unity it hadn’t known before. One of the busiest cities in the world will stop each year to stand strong together and give thanks for the gifts they had. The lucky ones will give thanks for the gifts they still have.

Tony, the boy-turned-man, who the Naudet brothers filmed went on to marry and have a daughter. Many of the firefighters did. No money nor possession would ever have the importance it once had and love and the search for it only ever increased.

The legacy of the trade centre should be life and humanity not death and destruction because when the event displayed evil at its most corrupt, the rest of us decided to live more lovingly. The rest of us hoped in happiness and good people committed themselves to living out the legacies of the deceased.

New Yorkers are resilient people. They still find a reason to smile.

It is city filled with people that live for joy, fullness of life and fulfillment of dreams.

Firefighters and police officers fought for love of others.

Family members and friends remember lives lost for love of the deceased.

It is hoped that those that never made it out remembered love in their final moments.
 
Ten years on New Yorkers live for love because when life is stripped away from you, love is all that endures.

9/11 – we will never forget.