I'm a day late and dollar short to this, a few actually, but I don't think that matters. Now past the 20 year anniversary, which feels both like too much time and too little, 9/11 was much more than a day. It was the beginning of a lasting era. If you were old enough to have any understanding of what was happening that morning, it was a wholly unforgettable and defining event.
As for me, I was in 9th grade, in band class, when the announcement came over the intercom. With the TVs on, we saw the second plane hit and both towers come down. Everyone went home early that day, more or less in shock, like students did all over the country. For the rest of the week and beyond I was glued to the TV. In those days that followed, the uncertainty was what made it scary. What else was planned? What would happen next?
It was 9/14/01 when President Bush reassured the city of New York and the nation with his bullhorn speech from Ground Zero. No matter what you think about what happened next (the war in Afghanistan, the Patriot Act and everything else), it was good to know we had a President who heard us, who cared and who wasn't asleep at the switch.
It was 10/30/01 when Bush did one better and threw out the first pitch in New York at the World Series, at Yankee Stadium. If you haven't watched the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on it, you're missing out. It's an absolute must-see. I'm fully aware that as a baseball nut, it's possible this will always mean more to me than most, but anyone with eyes and a brain must be able to see how connected baseball is to American life and how important the Yankees are to the city of New York. So yes it was a big deal for baseball to resume after 9/11, representing some aspect of healing and an attempt to return to normalcy, no small feat. And when the Yankees, who I still hate bitterly, made it to the World Series that season, it set a truly epic stage. Watch this:
I love everything about this story and this moment. Bush has baseball in his blood and knows the significance of this purely from a sports perspective, much less the considerably greater situation he found himself in. He knows NY and their fans and their expectations. He doesn't want to wear a bulletproof vest because he feels the huge pressure, of all things, to deliver a strike. Then he goes out with it on, throws from the mound(!) and delivers without hesitation, only taking a moment to soak it all in. It's literally perfect, and you'd know it just by his swagger on the way back to the dugout. How could you not tear up seeing this? It's crazy how little things like this can mean so much.
This is what I want to remember most about 9/11, because it was part of the hopeful and unifying phase following that tragic day. We'd get through this and we'd get through it together. It was one demonstration that America has always been great.
Never forget.
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