Yes Folks, We HAVE Changed

So here we are, one year later. I guess I need to write something relevant here in this space about what happened a year ago and what we've done since and how we've all changed. It's kinda hard to just sit down and write something for one specific date in history, especially only one year out. It was even harder to discuss what various people in my life would do to observe the anniversary of 9-11. It sounds pretty silly to ask, "Hey, what are you doing for 9-11?", like I'm asking "What are you doing for vacation?" or "What are you doing for Christmas?"

First of all, I'm not going to do one of the obligatory "where were you when" pieces. I wrote about that in the immediate aftermath of the attacks; if you want to read that, go here. And besides, it seems like more people would like to remember how we all felt in the hours, days, and weeks after the attacks than during them; the new sense of community we all had as Americans, the appreciation for the men and women in uniform (military, police, and fire), and the togetherness we all sought with loved ones. As such, I really don't remember my emotions and feelings on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, as much as I want to remember the events of Saturday, September 15, 2001. On that afternoon, I drove up to Susquehanna University, my alma mater, to watch our boys take on rival Lycoming. Not because it was football, not because it was my alma mater, and not because it was our biggest rival, but because I wanted to be someplace that felt like home, and actual home being five hours away, I sought the company of the friends I still had at Susquehanna. I still remember the atmosphere; very charged up emotionally, because people still had feelings to vent about the attacks and those who perpetrated them. Sitting in a jam-packed Lopardo Stadium, with the flags at half-staff, cheering on our team as they got stomped for the second straight week, but we were all together, and that's what the day was about. The need for us all to come together and be with loved ones and enjoy something uniquely American and uniquely pleasing as a Division III college football game.

Turn on the television or flip open a magazine this week, and you'll see a redux of the last year and what all has happened, both the immediate reactions we had to the events of 9-11, and also the later things we did, such as the war in Afghanistan. Emotions did start coming back to me then; I'm just as incredulous now as I was then toward Clear Channel Broadcasting with its list of songs that should not be played, from things as trivial as "Walk Like an Egyptian" to songs that may have sounded threatening to CC's decidedly conservative political beliefs like John Lennon's "Imagine". We also had to see Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson blame the attacks on "the abortionists, the pagans, the gays, the lesbians..." that apparently by their very existence caused America to become a terrorist target. I am still outraged by that, and I think the lesson we all learned about ourselves and each other in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 is that all of our true beliefs come out for all the world to see in times like that, when the layers of conscience or doubt are stripped away by the sheer emotional gravity of the moment.

I've read Rolling Stone's 9-11 issue and MTV's post-9-11 special (a very well-done piece of journalism, by the way), and seen them almost search in vain for proof that anything has really changed in America since last September 11th. We look at the predictions that were made about how we would all be changed by the events of the day: music will go from the pop fluff of previous years to serious songs with incisive lyrics, hard rock and rap-metal will be unfavorable because it will only remind people of what happened on 9-11, and of course, the all-time classic: "the end of irony". Well, if you're scoring at home: 1) music was already heading away from pop to begin with, and for the most part today it has pretty much left the radar screen, 2) hard rock and rap-metal, if anything, have become bigger today than they were last September, and 3) no, irony didn't completely go away, but it did disappear just long enough to get Bill Maher fired.

If anything, the most ironic thing of them all to happen was how the nation slowly started to reject all things 9-11 rather than use them to rally the troops like Pearl Harbor once did. The breaking point may have come at the Super Bowl, when U2 put on an awesome show in which the names of the victims of the attacks scrolled behind the band on a screen and Bono showed the American flag lining on his jacket at the end of the performance. Almost immediately, the columnists started circling like vultures, saying as one, "ENOUGH ALREADY! We've had enough of these 9-11 tributes, this is the Super Bowl, we want to forget what happened on September 11th, and HOW DARE YOU, Bono, play with our national symbol like you have, you're not even AMERICAN!!!" In fact, despite the significance that some U2 songs have had in helping people deal with the tragedy, one influential rock station which shall go nameless has declared that it will definitely NOT play anything by U2 today, for that reason alone, because they're not an AMERICAN band. I'm sorry but closed-mindedness and jingoism like that is not necessary to observe the 9-11 anniversary. If anything, we should embrace that people who are not from our country have rallied around us as we seek to become one global community.

That being said, we should all be proud to be Americans today, and nobody has captured that spirit once again quite like Bruce Springsteen. I was doing my warm-up stretches the other day at the Y, preparing to work out, and "The Rising" came on the all-music channel that is piped throughout the weight room. I had heard the song before, including seeing Springsteen's inspired performance of the song at the VMAs, but at that moment, I just felt so pumped up by hearing it; it was really the first time I had felt like I did in the weeks after 9-11, excited and fired up and just plain PROUD to be American.

So, I will admit that I have changed since last September 11th; we all have, anyone who tells you they have not been changed by what happened a year ago is LYING. Oh, I'm still as cynical and sarcastic as ever; one look at the columns I've written in the past year proves that. However, I think what has changed most about me is that I have a greater awareness of the world around me. Not long after 9-11, I was forced to take a second job, due to financial constraints, and I took a job working at the front desk at the Chambersburg YMCA. It didn't occur to me right away, but rather soon after I started working there that by doing this, I pretty much was doing just what our president asked us all to do in his speech to Congress after the attacks; to become more involved in my community. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was no doubt concerned primarily with me; my career, mostly, which had just taken a new path with my move to the 'Burg from Syracuse. Today, I still worry about my job (often needlessly), but I also see this time of year as the kids around here are back in school, and how are my co-workers doing in both jobs, and what's happening in town this week (although the answer to that is usually nothing). If you don't already feel these things, perhaps today is as good a day as any to start. Nothing has taught us about the fleeting things in our world, most importantly life itself, quite like last September 11th has.