The Day After

A few years ago some momentum was started to establish September 11 as a national day of service/volunteering. I recently tallied my year-to-date volunteer hours and it’s now ticked up to multiple, several dozens of hours for a couple different non-profits. Pales in comparison to many folks’ but a marked increase for me so I took the selfish route on this September 11 date and chose to become a bit of a voyeur vs. a worker. 

This marked the fourth city I’ve visited or lived in post September 11, 2001. I’ve now been to two of the impacted cities, spending the fifth anniversary of 9/11 at Ground Zero in New York. 

Several local events were held in DC, some private, some public. While I couldn’t be in multiple places at once I did make a point to visit several of the locations. 

For (hopefully) obvious reasons I chose to avoid the actual ceremonies; instead passing by a bit after events were completed. Traffic was already a mess before dawn as POTUS had multiple stops all around town; fortunately I chose to bike to my destination spots. My initial target destination was The Pentagon—however getting within a couple hundred meters was difficult even though it was somewhat open to the public. I made a course correction and headed up to one of my favorite places in the area–the Air Force Memorial. Expansive views of downtown and the surrounding area are available and the quiet is a treasure. From that location the impact spot of the plane can be seen—that’s also the exact flight path taken which lends an eerie, nearly surreal feeling to standing there exactly to-the-second twelve years after the strike. 

Next up was another attempt at the Pentagon Memorial–as soon as the orange cones down the hill from me were removed, which followed the last of the flashing lights and oversized black SUVs, I rode down the hill toward the tunnel. By the time I reached the grounds/memorial the porta-tents and other  barricades were in mid-tear down. I paused for only a couple of minutes; it appeared some impacted family members were lingering and I was not interested in further intruding. 

Heading up the trail I landed in Clarendon; the site of the county courthouse; the one large public event site. Events included readings, bagpipes and some gun salutes. I caught the last bits of the readings; few were still in attendance; perhaps because of the sweltering humidity combined with the reality that this was the middle of a working day. 

I’ve been here several times; I expected a few stragglers and was somewhat surprised to only find three–still working with their video equipment. I have yet to run into more than a handful of visitors to this memorial–it’s easily accessible and quite welcoming; but as I’m finding with many things if it’s not on or adjacent to the Mall or the White House it’s missed. Disappointing.  

Turning west it was time to wrap up my 9/11 day of personal reflection and recording—this one second only to the days spent in NYC for Anniversary #5. I was pleasantly surprised to find the bridge across the river still adorned with mini-flags—each labeled with the name of a victim in the Pentagon strike. I know because I stopped to look at a couple. 

Sweltering heat, steam-room type humidity, blast-furnace breezes and relentless sunshine made for a challenging day weaving through traffic with a fully loaded backpack. I forced myself to push the pace every time I could–unfortunately I didn’t track the time or route; that wasn’t the focus. Somehow the day felt normal; which itself didn’t feel right. Save for the tents coming down at the Pentagon it could  have passed for any other day.  I guess I thought I’d see more people lingering, remembering. Instead it could have been the day after. I know what each of these venues (including the busy, noisy, rough bridge) went through to set up and tear down–and to have it pass so quickly. It made me feel guilty I didn’t perform some type of service—I expect I will moving forward. I hope I can recall how I felt throughout the day as a reminder to do some tiny part toward keeping the memory of the day alive.