after the attacks

[low_delta]

I see this meme every year at this time.

I miss 9/12. I would never ever want another 9/11, but I miss the America of 9/12. Stores ran out of flags to sell because they were being flown everywhere. People were Americans before they were upper / lower class, Jewish / Christian, Republican / Democrat. We hugged people without caring if they ate at Chick-Fil-A or wore Nikes. On 9/12, what mattered more was what united us, than what divided us.

This was not my experience. The week after the attacks was very difficult. Everyone was upset, and people were cranky. Aside from arguments about whether we should "bomb them back" (despite the fact that "they" didn't bomb us), I felt that even strangers on the street were much less friendly.

I don't know if this is a case of selective memory, of if it really was different elsewhere, but I don't want it to be like that again. Even now, with the political situation and Covid, I don't get that feeling on the street.

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Comments

[ljravengirl]

I agree with you- that was not my experience nor the experience of my friends. I had a feeling of "we're in it together", but that's how I am.

I remember being in an airport afterward, probably at Thanksgiving or Christmas, and a brown man with a turban was seated at the gate, very early like me. A young woman was seated nearby and I thought I saw fear and wariness in her eyes as she glanced occasionally at the man. I met her eyes and smiled as reassuringly as I could because I had no fear of that man but do understand how we come to stereotype people.

After 9/11 I remember being angry all the time at the Bush administration and fearing what a coming war might bring. I knew it would happen due to politics at that time, but I was against it and very upset by it all.