Never Forget

The front page of today's paper implored me to "Never Forget". How could I though, how could I ever forget being shocked, being afraid, being a witness to thousands of needless deaths? How could anyone ever forget? As usual it's not the right idea and it's not the way the world works. The memory will fade, not from lack of caring, not from neglect, not from indifference, it will fade because time and the universe are bigger and more important than we will ever be.  The years slip by, I can't stop them. The events I remember, the moon landing, Vietnam, the Cold War, smoking at work, 4 TV channels, Gilligans Island, Pop rocks, the Beatles have become millions of other peoples history. There are 60 million people in this country right now under the age of 14. How can we expect them to remember something they never experienced in the first place? Its text book to them. Pearl Harbor, 9/11; they mean something in the abstract but they will never "Remember" either.

Another headline for today was "The Day the World Changed". Changed? Changed for who?  Changed? 3,000 needless deaths and suddenly the world has changed? That's not change, that's any given Wednesday.  Changed? Hundreds, no thousands, of people went above and beyond what could possibly be expected of them. Change? No, we're human beings, that's how we can roll. Change?  From tragedy and fear came the opportunity to forge a new and better world. Change? Maybe next time. Maybe next time.

The head line should have read "What did you learn". Did we learn that pain and loss are a deeply personal thing that we shouldn't co-opt from the people that actually experienced it? Apparently not at our mass media. Did we learn that lashing out blindly in our pain and fear only creates more pain and fear? I hope so, but it doesn't look good. Did we learn that evil men do horrible things? I think we already knew that. Did we learn that the lesser of two evils is still evil? Call me when they close Gitmo.  Did we learn that shooting the bad guy in the face doesn't really bring closure? Did we learn the closure is psycho-babble bull crap that keeps people with useless degrees employeed? Did we learn that evening the score, 1 Bin Laden for 3000 innocents, only feels good in the movies? Did we learn to say, "Stop, we're not doing this anymore." If the worlds going to get better do we have a choice?

More importantly did we learn to call Mom more than once a week just because? Did we learn to hug our kids just a little bit tighter and read them an extra story just before bedtime? Did we learn that once we have enough money to buy all the ice cream we want we have enough money? Did we learn that a touch, a caress, an "I love you" in the fog on the bathroom mirror makes her day? Did we learn that you can't get a better meal than molten hot pizza and icy cold beer? Did we learn how great grass smells? Did we learn that every day we get out of bed is a day to savior?  Did we learn that it tastes better, sounds sweeter, feels warmer, looks nicer, and smells wonderful because it could all be gone in an instant?

I'll always remember 9/11. I can only read about Pearl Harbor. I can learn from them both. Today is a good day.