We must get back to something approaching the unity we had after the attacks and to our best selves.
Every year since 2011, FTF has allowed me to devote a Minding the Gap blog post to the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. I have been covering Wall Street since 1997, and that day hit me hard; I have tried to say something new on every anniversary.
Grygo is the chief content officer for FTF & FTF News.
This Friday will mark 25 years since that terrible day. Like many people on that day, I was away from danger and had an unusual path back to New York City that I wrote about previously. Later this week, I will be posting on social media the full list of those I knew who lost their lives on 9/11. I will be saying a few words for each one of them. I will also be calling an editor whose decision to change my assignment most likely saved my life.
I am not certain that I have anything new to say for the 25th anniversary other than that there are really no simply average or ordinary human beings. Each one of us is quirky, lovable, unpleasant, strong, easy, difficult, and hateful at any given moment as we do our best to deal with life. As we saw on 9/11, so-called ordinary people did extraordinary deeds to save lives and stand up to the terrorists.
But this means that each loss is painfully unique. At 65, I have lost a lot of people from my life, and I can tell you that each departure hurts in a different way. I have never gotten used to people crossing over, and I mourn, and I grieve. I believe in an afterlife, but like a kid, I just want the party to continue. I want all of us to live until we’re about 120 or so and to laugh our way through every challenge.
But we don’t live in a child’s world. Even so, while I respect stoicism, there is no shame in grief and no shame in long goodbyes. We must take the time we need to say farewell, especially if it is a sudden, traumatic loss. We must support our friends as they grieve. Take their calls. Give them honesty, but also give them compassion and empathy when life kicks them in the teeth. Help them stand up and take their first steps back into life. Someday someone will do it for you.
One other lesson that 9/11 has taught me is that no one, no matter how dedicated they are, is just a mask for their profession or their station in life. No matter what their position within a firm or society is, there is a real person behind the mask. And all the masks came down after 9/11, even for self-righteous, know-it-all journalists like me. We are human, and if we forget that, we are bound to do horrifying things.
Photo by Lerone Pieters via Unsplash
I will quote the great poet/songwriter/Goddess Patti Smith. Patti, David Bowie, Bebel Gilberto, Philip Glass, Nawang Khechog, Kronos Quartet, and the Monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery performed at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 22, 2002, in a benefit concert for the Tibet House of New York City and for 9/11 victims. I have no idea how I got into the concert – I think others pulled strings where I was working at the time.
At the end of the concert, Patti sang her anthem “People Have the Power,” and brought down the house. We were chanting and crying, and we were one. She then roared into the microphone: “Remember who you were on September 10!” She was asking us not to get pulled into cynicism, hopelessness, bitterness, or worse. I am sure that she was also aware of and referring to the uniquely beautiful unity we had following the attacks.
We must get back to something approaching the unity we had after the attacks and to our best selves. We must clear the air, find areas of common ground, and build from there. It’s the only way forward.
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