My City of Ruin
by Bruce Springsteen
There's a blood red circle
On the cold dark ground
And the rain is falling down
The church doors blown open
I can hear the organ's song
But the congregation's gone
My city of ruins
My city of ruins
Now the sweet veils of mercy
Drift through the evening trees
Young men on the corner
Like scattered leaves
The boarded up windows
The hustlers and thieves
While my brother's down on his knees
My city of ruins
My city of ruins
Come on rise up!
Come on rise up!
Now there's tears on the pillow
Darling where we slept
And you took my heart when you left
Without your sweet kiss
My soul is lost, my friend
Now tell me how do I begin again?
My city's in ruins
My city's in ruins
Now with these hands
I pray lord
With these hands
For the strength lord
With these hands
For the faith lord
With these hands
I pray lord
With these hands
For the strength lord
With these hands
For the faith lord
With these hands
Come on rise up!
Come on rise up!
Rise up
Imagine
by John Lennon, 1971
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, you may say I am 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, you may say I am a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one.
Why I chose these Lyrics: I spent part of Saturday talking to both my mom and Jeannine asking, "What do you remember about September 11Th? What comes to mind for you? Is there a song that makes you think of that day?"
This is perhaps, the first year I've truly spent hours reflecting on September 11Th. In past years, I'll admit that my personal medical crises overshadowed time for introspection on this topic. This weekend, I listened to the 2 disc CD set America: A Tribute to Heroes. I talked to my mom and Jeannine.
Last night, I chose two songs from the CD set--as I could not pick just one. Melissa might say, "Can I pick two? Pretty please?"
Why did I have such hard time choosing lyrics to remember September 11Th? Because for me, September 11Th has become inseparable from the senseless war in which we are now involved. The lives lost--both Americans and Iraqis. The ridiculous amount of money spent. The lies we were fed as a nation. A president who refuses to admit he is wrong. More lives lost than we ever lost to begin with when those planes hit the World Trade Center. A nation now despised by many around the world. I'm disenchanted with America. I'm embarrassed by what we've become.
This made my gut want to choose an anti-war song. But then, I paused. I forced myself to remember what September 11, 2001 really meant, not what September 11, 2007 means.
When I asked my mom, "What do you remember?" she responded with descriptions of where she was, what she was doing, the shock of it all. She did not immediately jump to the war we are in now. She focused on the event itself. This helped to bring me back to focus. I asked my mom, "Are you more disenchanted with America now than you were then?" "No," she said, "not more than at any other time in my life." She reminded me that there are only a couple of places in this world (the Scandinavian countries) that she might even want to live other than America.
In reality, I know she is right.
When I later spoke to Jeannine, she too had the same gut reaction that I did. How are we what we are now? How did this become America? She, too, could not separate September 11, 2001 from the war and our country's place in the world.
Last night, I chose my Weekend Lyrics and jotted down a few thoughts for my blog today. When I sat down to lunch, Mom noted that Leonard Pitts Jr. had a column in the paper today titled "Does Anyone Remember Six Years Ago?" Oh, how God works, I thought. Should I read the editorial before or after I blogged? His opinions were similar to mine, she said. But he can write it all better than I can, I thought!
Still, I read it. And it was exactly what my thoughts were. But here it is in my own words.
My City of Ruins: I chose this song because for me, it does sum up who we were then, who we were as a country, who we were as a world in those moments and those days after the initial attacks.
I realized how inappropriate it would be to choose an anti-war song for September 11, 2001: to politicize what happened that day. We vowed that the deaths of those in the attacks would not be in vain. And those who lost loved ones are still mourning. We had heroes. We had people rushing to help with the rescue efforts (many of whom are very sick now from respiratory problems). We had, not just a country, but a world, united. We rose to the occasion. And, in those days after the attacks, I was proud to be an American.
When Jeannine and I watched the benefit concert on television, Springsteen had composed this song just for the occasion. I chose this song because I remember that in 2001 we did rise up. We did use our hands to pray, to heal, to help. I remember how clearly this song spoke to me in capturing the raw emotion I felt, the grief we felt as a nation, and the hope that we would 'Rise up."
Imagine: When I asked Jeannine what song came to mind for her, she chose both Angel by Sarah McLaughlin and Imagine by John Lennon. Imagine, she said reminded her of what we could have been: a benevolent nation, not a tyrant. Written in 1971, 30 years before the September 11 attacks, Imagine's words remained perfectly poignant for the occasion. John Lennon's version is also on the CD set that I have of the televised concert.
Initially, we reacted (and so did the world) with love, not hatred. We reacted by uniting. Imagine where we would be today if we had continued to react in that way.
"This anniversary," Leonard Pitts Jr. writes, "then, laments not simply loss of life, but of opportunity." That is how I feel. But he does, as I have done this weekend, remind us that "it is worth pausing to remember that just six years ago we were attacked." I was thankful to awake to his editorial today--a validation of all that I have been pondering these past few days, the mixed emotions, the need to separate the two events, and the difficulty of doing so.
Where were you on September 11, 2001? What do you remember? What song comes to mind for you? What do you feel six years later?
I'd love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment! Or, if you are a subscriber and you prefer to hit the "Reply" button, just let me know if it is okay for me to post your response under the comment section.
Six years ago, on Tuesday September 11Th (this year the anniversary falls on a Tuesday for the first time), I was living in an apartment with Jeannine. I woke up, got up to pee and heard the TV on downstairs. "Jeannine?" I called. "What's wrong? Are you sick? Are you home from work?" "Two planes just crashed into the World Trade Center," she answered.
Still half asleep, I didn't grasp the magnitude of what she had just said. I went back to bed and tried to sleep. When I got up, I heard the whole story. Jeannine stayed glued to the TV the entire day. I, on the other hand, am one of those people who cannot take seeing the same images over and over again. I cannot take the grief. I have to take 'time outs'. Not because I don't care, but because I literally crumble emotionally and physically.
What I remember so clearly about that day is leaving the apartment to take a walk. I could still, at that time, take a 30 minute walk. I took Winnie for a walk in the middle of the afternoon. I reveled in the quiet from the noise of the TV. I looked up at the clear blue cloudless sky. The neighborhood was eerily quiet and peaceful. All I could think was that here I was taking a peaceful walk on a gorgeous fall day while lives were falling apart and New York City and Washington DC were in chaos. NYC was filled with smoke, dust, sirens, noise.
Here, it was quiet. Peaceful. A perfect fall day. I just remember how unreal that all felt.
Let us not forget those who died that day and remember, "May their memory be a blessing,"
Emily
Photo: A perfect summer day here. This photo was not taken with September 11Th in mind, but it reminds me of the walk I took that day and the clear blue sky overhead.
3 comments:
I remember I was at work in an 8 a.m. meeting and someone came in and told us one plane had hit and then later we found out there had been two crashes in NYC. All day my coworker and I watched the Internet updates on CNN - we didn't get much done. Some of the gas stations jacked up their gas prices in reaction to what they thought even then was a terrorist attack from the Middle East. I was one of the people who filled up my car in anticipation of higher prices. I called my friends who I knew knew people in NYC to make sure they were OK.
Even though Sept. 11 isn't about war, it's turned into a big reminder for me. Since then I've become ashamed of what this country has become and our current political leadership. I hope a conclusion to the Middle East conflict is reached soon so I can remember Sept. 11 for something other than a war.
-- Britt
Emily, well written, and a great choice of songs as well ;) It's hard to believe that 6 years has gone by since that day. On that day, I was working in DC, right down the street from the white house. Our office shut down right away and they sent people home, but most of us traveled by metro to work, which wasn't running, so getting out of the city was tough. The city looked like a scene out of independence day, people were crying and we could see the smoke from the Pentagon. There was so much confusion.... I finally got a ride out of the city and it was just shocking to see the Pentagon burning as we went over the bridge into Virginia. Weirdly enough, when I think about it the memory that comes to mind is how the next week or so everything smelled like burning rubber :(
Our country had a lot of sympathy after 9/11 and I think it was terrible how the US took this 'we are proud, we will continue on' stance. I often think if we had been more open at the beginning to world support we would not be so isolated now.
Pam
I was teaching when I first heard of the terrorist attck. My class was in a study hall. A student of mine who had been at a doctor's appointment walked in and said that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. I recalled a story about how a B-52 had once run into the Empire State Building and figured that someone who didn't know what he was doing flew a Cesna or something into the WTC. I kept on surfing the net (probably looking at something New York Yankees related). About 20 minutes later I decided to go to CNN's website to see what was going on with the Cesna. I realized something more was going on when I couldn't get on. That is when I turned NPR on and the full extent of the tragedy began to reveal itself.
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