How Do You Remember This Day?

I remember exactly where I was when I heard about the attack.  Most people do.  I certainly don't want to ever feel that again, but I remember some good that came out of it.  Remember the little flag window clings for your car?  Or the antenna flags?  Flag pins?  I really remember a sense of togetherness.  No one was blaming anyone else for their problems, and I didn't hear much about race.  For a brief time, we were all Americans, and we were all mourning.  And scared.  So I guess we can only be brought together under horrific circumstances...now most of what I read, even from my friends, is about who is killing who, or more specifically, which race has the lead in killing the other.  I have had to delete a few friends who insist on keeping this going.  It upsets me since we obviously have other things to concern ourselves with.  For instance, over the past few days I've read a lot about children being adopted, then the adoptive parents changing their minds and "giving" them away to strangers.  These people cannot really be considered part of the same species as me, can they?  There's all kinds of crazy going on in this world, in this country, that we need to worry about.  September 11, 2001 put a brief halt to all of the infighting and made us all focus on each other, realizing that as Americans, we are in this together, like it or not.  I actually liked it, feeling that everyone had my back for that brief time.  My flag decal had essentially been burned into my windshield by the time I got rid of my car a few years back. 

So now what?  With all of the commemorative speeches and tributes and memorials, how can that feeling of togetherness be recaptured?  The short answer is that it can't.  Not unless we have another national tragedy, one where we can't blame each other because the attack comes from the outside.  Still, I prefer to remember everyone's sacrifice, and loss, and how in the midst of tragedy, they brought our country together for a very brief time.  I'm thinking that if we really want to honor that memory, we should never let those deaths be in vain.  It's the least we can do.