I was only in 4th Grade when America was attacked on her own soil for the first time since Pearl Harbor. The teachers were acting strange, and then without warning, my mother picked me up from school to take me home.
She had witnessed the carnage on the news with my older brother at a local restaurant after a dentist appointment. I remember watching the news coverage while sitting on our living room floor when we got home.
Yes, I was young. I was also terrified. I only knew about the World Trade Center from an old Simpsons episode, and I really wasn’t allowed to watch The Simpsons.
Maybe my experience seems less significant because I was young. However, those of us who were young will remember longer. We will be responsible for telling the story when we’re in our 80s and 90s, and it seems like ancient history.
And I remember other things about 9/11 too:
I remember visiting New York for the first time and gazing into the giant pit where the buildings once stood.
I remember visiting the Memorial not long after it first opened and seeing all the names written in stone.
I remember being in college and listening to a lecture on 9/11. Our professor was a volunteer firefighter, and he was concerned that we understand its place in history.
I remember my first graduating class of seniors while working in youth ministry who were born after 9/11. They never knew the world before. Those students like so many others will remember only in solidarity, not in actual practice.
But lately, I remember how united our country was immediately following the incident. I remember the disinterest in partisan politics. Remember the love and concern we had for one another.
That united sentiment didn’t last very long, and a lot of poor decisions were made in the aftermath motivated by fear. But I miss 9/12, as many of you might too.
I’ve also been somewhat disappointed that’s despite numerous tragedies and challenges since that day, division and partisanism in our country have only gotten worse.
I’ve seen posts on social media about how people miss the America of 9/12. I get it. I do too.
However, I think it’s important to remember that division in our country is a choice. We choose to promote intentionally divisive content. We choose to see the world as strictly black-and-white. We choose rejection over empathy, and we’re choosing it more and more each day.
In his speech excepting the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Springfield, Illinois, the future president Abraham Lincoln made reference to a teaching from Jesus Christ. It was at the height of civil tension in our country.
“ A house divided against itself, cannot stand,” he said.
When we choose division, we choose weakness. So many people around the world would like us to choose weakness.
May we all be mindful of the divisions in our country that people use to gain political power. May we all be held accountable for the divisive choices we ourselves make, which alienate us from our neighbors and make our communities weaker.
But most of all, may we remember as Christians, we are united as one. Neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, neither Republican nor Democrat, neither American nor immigrant.
I will continue to tell the story of 9/11, but I will also tell the story of 9/12 when our country did its best to unite.
Kena Hawkins Newkirk 