ICHEOKU says this day, every year, has become the day many Americans grieve most as the pain is not going away and is only refreshed or rebooted every September 11th. Americans grieve on 9/11 not only because of the thousands of lives lost on that day, but the stark reality of their vulnerability right in their homeland, as they forever lost their sense of safety and security which the sea to the shinning sea hitherto "provided." Everybody in America is somewhat traumatized, admitted different people carry trauma differently; and although some people have also bravely soldiered on but are usually dragged back to what was and still is on the occasion of each anniversary of 9/11.
A matter made worse because the skyline of Manhattan New York City was forever and permanently changed as a result of what the terrorists that struck Now World Trade Center desired. The authorities in New York failed to take this into full consideration when they hatched the plan for the restoration of the center by settling for one glass tower instead of two. It would have been a tribute in full restoration of the iconic Twin Towers which had graced the Manhattan skyline for such a long time that it became an identifier of New York City, in addition to Lady Liberty and the Empire State building.
Although the glimmering glass tower is beautiful but it is not the Twin Towers; and can never be the Twin Towers, especially for the older generation who lived their lives with two twin towers on the horizon in New York City. First and foremost, one is different from two and less than two; also the former towers were boxy while the new single one is anti prism shaped. ICHEOKU says is confident that had two towers been erected instead of one that it would have helped bring some closure to the tragedy, at least New York skyline would have been restored. But the lack thereof still gives the people the chill that not only were they so violently violated on 9/11, but also that their skyline was gone forever.
Each day New Yorkers wake up to see a Manhattan skyline without their Twin Towers, it reminds them of the loss which they suffered on 9/11 at the hands of al-Qaida terrorists and it still hurts so badly. That void ought to have been filled and as long as it remains left unfilled, that long will the hurt feeling continue in the people until the generation pre 9/11 are completely gone; and the younger post 9/11 generation can then carry on with the only skyline known to them, devoid of Twin Towers. In fact, the terrorists won in that aspect by permanently and forever redefining an iconic American skyline for Americans.
It is a defeat to accept their term on how our skyline should look and we are humiliated as a result, regardless of how anyone wants to spin that consequential fact. it would have been a different calculus had the New York development authority decided to change the skyline and took the Twin Towers down and replaced it with one solitary glass tower. But that al-Qaida forced the outcome is simply not the best medicine for anybody to take. It is partly why so many people are still hurting till today, even to the point of suffering PTSD; and going into mood swings and total depression on every September 11th anniversary of the terrorist attack of 9/11 2001.
It is twenty years on and nothing has changed in the real sense of it. The reliving of the event each year on television is not helping anyone get better or over it either as it re-traumatizes them all over again. This leads to the question, is it not about time we reduced the extent of our 9/11 commemoration as it is causing more pain than bringing relief to millions of American people. Pearl Harbor attack is not commemorated in the same magnitude as 9/11 which have made it possible for most Americans to move on from the tragic Japanese induced event. So, when are we going to move on from 9/11 or will it take the dying off of the 9/11 generation to eventually reach such an outcome.
ICHEOKU says does not know about you but September 11 of every year is not usually the best day and each year seems to be getting even worse than the year before in how sad one feels about it. It hurts so much that even tuning off televisions only masks it, because in the back of your mind, it is still that day of infamy, regardless. Although some cultures say that when the palace of a king burns, it is an opportunity to build a better palace, but is One Trade Center's single glass tower really any better than One Trade Center's Twin Towers that it replaced after it was burnt and brought down by the terrorists flying jumbo jet planes into them?
This particular anniversary is very solemn in some awkward, eerie way. It is particularly memorable as the only anniversary of 9/11 without American troops boots on the ground in Afghanistan, fighting those who facilitated the takedown of our Twin Towers, who attempted the takedown of the Pentagon and also the take down of one other additional American landmark somewhere, before their plan was foiled by brave men and women on Flight 93 who sacrificed their lives by forcing the plane down in Shanksville Pennsylvania. Who knows what their exact target was as it could have been the Congress or the White House or even some place else. But whatever it might have been, it was aborted and for this, the nation remains perpetually indebted to those who, using fighting words "lets roll", rolled and prevented the murderous attempt.
To all those who were killed on 9/11 at the three sites, this day is to honor your memory. We remember you all and pray that you continue to rest. To all those killed post 9/11 through to August 26 2021, fighting to avenge the deaths of the innocent victims of 9/11, we owe you a debt of gratitude for your selfless supreme sacrifice. We shall never forget, admitted doing exactly such is what will help us all heal and move on from the tragedy. But we are human beings and we seek vengeance, despite what the Bible said that 'vengeance is mine says the Lord.' After killing Osama bin Laden and thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are still feeling unfulfilled in avenging 9/11. So, what will it take? May be we should have drawn on Nagasaki and Hiroshima experience to guide our response but we didn't. Now, it is only time that we can look unto to heal our wound; but as seen so far, twenty years is not long enough.
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