Imagine

And so it arrives. The ten year anniversary of the September 11,2001 attack on the United States is today. The heartbreak and horror come rushing back to us. The 9/11 Commission Report states that a minimum of 2600 people died at the World Trade Center and another 125 perished at the Pentagon. Tragically 256 people lost their lives on the four planes involved in the terrorist attack. Different reports give you different numbers but the end result is consistently sickening regardless of the exact toll. The Port Authority Police lost 37 officers. The NYC Police Department lost 23 officers. The NYC Fire Department lost 343 firemen and paramedics. There were 115 nations whose citizens were killed in the attacks. Approximately 100 vehicles were lost by the NYC Fire Department. One thousand six hundred and nine people lost a spouse or partner in the attacks. Three thousand fifty one children lost a parent. Twenty percent of Americans knew someone injured or killed in the attacks. The statistics are overwhelming. But those are mere numbers. These were lives lost not numbers tallied.

This is my generation's Pearl Harbor. We did not want one nor did we want to surpass the death toll of Pearl Harbor and yet we did. We did not want to recognize the traditional question asking where were you when...the first tower fell...the second tower fell....the Pentagon was hit.....you heard about Flight 93...We did not want to have a Ground Zero. We did not want to become all too familiar with the phrase: first-responders.


The NYPD website honors the "23 police officers who were died on 9/11 and those who have perished since as a result of illnesses contracted from exposure at Ground Zero and Fresh Kills."  ( Fresh Kills is a landfill that was temporarily used to sort two million tons of rubble from Ground Zero.) The FDNY website refers to memorials honring "the 343 FDNY members killed on September 11,2001 as well as the 57 who have died in the past decade due to World Trade Center-related illnesses." One of the FDNY's fallen was their beloved chaplain,Father Mychal Judge who ran toward the carnage to help. He was giving last rites to a firefighter when he was killed. He became the first recorded victim of the attacks. He is Victim 0001. More statistics. More numbers. More nightmares.

New York,New York.  Washington,DC.  Shanksville,Pennsylvania.  We will always associate them with this date. There was such an enormous amount of sadness. There was such vast loss. There was such unspeakable pain.

There was also resilience. There was support. There was love. There was faith. There was patriotism. There was courage. There was resolve.

Fly your flags. Sing the national anthem with feeling. Wear FDNY caps and NYPD t-shirts and remember the lost. Remember them by how you live your lives. Share the message of Victim 0001 : LOVE & PEACE.
And remember the words of another fallen New Yorker, John Lennon:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.