September 11th and the younger generations…

September 11, 2012… Another anniversary of the day our country (and the world for that matter) changed forever. Each year I try to take time to revisit that day. To recall the emotions of it… How we all experienced the horror of an act of war on our mainland for the first time in well over a century. It was the kind that rarely happens anywhere in the world. The loss of civilian lives that day where (and still are) unimaginable. Even in the most war-torn parts of the world, that kind of killing of innocents is extremely rare. Thank God for that.

This year a strange new dimension came into play for me. It was the realization (thanks to my brother who works in the education field) that a lot of high school students today have little memory of September 11, 2001 and many of them aren’t fully aware of all the horrors of that day. Although it seems like it was only yesterday to me, we are now faced with a new generation coming of age who’s view of 9/11 comes from a historical perspective and not from first-hand memories. It had just not occurred to me. That Tuesday still burns so fresh in my consciousness that it had never dawned on me that we now have young adults who don’t recall that day.

With this new realization came new concerns. With our “plugged in” society (which I am not knocking, I am a card-carrying member of it in fact) we seemed to have lost the art of face-to-face storytelling. This had already bothered me for the simple reason that I love nothing more than telling a story to a captive audience. However, this is different. Families use to spend more time talking about their personal history and sharing the lessons learned from them. Even if it was just around the dinner table, stories were exchanged. On occasion, the topic of the story was serious and carried emotions that made the recalling of a past event all that more real. For example, hearing my parents and grandparents talk about how they felt when JFK was assassinated made helped me understand the emotions our nation felt that November day.

The little things that are exchanged in the face-to-face telling of a story leave an impression. The tone of the storyteller’s voice, the look in their eyes and the possible tears all help bring the story to life in a very real way.

Listening to my mother-in-law recount her nights in the bomb shelters under her city in England while Germany bombed her homeland every night, impacted me in a very real way. She spoke of how every morning leaving the shelter to see what was left standing of her city while walking to school. Watching her relive those memories as she retold the stories made it real to me. I’d heard about the shelters and people having to do what she had done in documentaries, even saw many interviews with survivors before, but it was not the same. The face-to-face storytelling, the reading of her expression and the haunted look in her eyes as she relayed the events could have never been truly captured on film. Only in person could you feel it the way I did.

So now it’s our turn. We need to make sure we share the pain, horror, sadness, anger and confusion we felt that day with the upcoming generations. We need to sit with them and relive every awful moment as best we can recall them. If we cry, we cry. If it upsets them, it upsets them. I’m not suggesting we terrorize young children with these stories. No, I’m referring to those old enough to handle the reality of 9/11. It is way too soon to let this become a sanitized chapter in history for them. We still have troops putting their lives on the line as a direct result of that day. We owe it them as much as the victims of 9/11 to share the story the right way. Watch one of the dozens of excellent documentaries with your child and then share your personal recollections of that day. Make it real for them.

Today the generation I speak of will make very honorable gestures and post things on Facebook like ‘Never Forget 9/11’ and I’m glad to see this. However, now I worry that they may not know the full story of that day or feel the suffering we felt as a nation. It’s way too soon for that to happen…