Remembering 9/11

I was at home on 9/11 with a repairman, when my husband called and told me to turn on the TV. After seeing the video of the first plane hitting the tower, I called the repairman to the TV to watch. He looked very briefly and said in a sad voice, "there will be a war over this and nothing will be the same." I sat for the rest of the day with a neighbor, watching the horror, and worrying about the people in the Towers, and those who were trying to rescue them. And what would happen to our country.

A year later, I was in a design class and put two long rectangles up on the wall. I realized that the shape would be forever burned into my mind, and for many in the world, as the Twin Towers. I followed my thoughts, and made an art quilt. For me, I feel that the people who died that day are at peace, but so many people are still working through the feelings from that day. Hate and fear were ignited, and it has resulted in two wars, and the deaths and maiming of many troops, civilians, and not enough terrorists.

Now, the Muslim Community Center has become a symbol of terrorists, instead of the peaceful message that Islam preaches. If the terrorists had purported to be Catholics, would we say a Catholic church couldn't be built there? They were no more practitioners of Islam than Timothy McVeigh or abusive priests are true Catholics.

It is very sad that the hate the terrorists felt, has caught on with some people. Who wants to be judged by the worst of us?