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Highlights I Remember...

By Brent C. Gray

 

I actually started to write about an entirely different topic, but it just didn't seem right. So I'll save that for another day. This Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Consequently, such things as the law, or culture, or music - the standard topics of this blog - just seem trivial.

Let me make this disclaimer first. There is no way that this short blog can adequately address anything remotely as significant as 9/11. Even the ripple effects of 9/11 have become so much a part of our everyday lives that we hardly even notice them. Yet they are still there. And I think we should all from time to time reflect upon them. As Spanish philosopher George Santayana wisely said, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

I was a first-year law student, a 1L for those in the know, at the University of Memphis School of Law. It was a morning like any other. My biggest concern that day, as was every day, was whether I was going to get “called on.” I remember like yesterday passing through the student lounge seeing a couple dozen students huddled around a small 20 inch television staring intently at the screen. Normally there were maybe three or four people watching the television at this time. I joined the group and quickly learned that a plane had just hit one of the World Trade Center buildings. It was being speculated that maybe this was some fluke, albeit horrific, accident. Within minutes that theory was proven wrong as our group, that had now grown to probably 50 students, watched a second plane hit the other World Trade Center Tower.  I’ll never forget the sound of the collective gasp. 

The next couple hours were surreal. I remember watching in horror as the first tower fell.  And then the second.  I remember a few students crying while frantically attempting to call friends or family in the New York or DC areas. I remember that classes went on as scheduled that day, as crazy as this seems in hindsight. I remember on that day, and the weeks that followed, I had an insatiable desire to get home and watch the news. Strangely, in the midst of this terrible tragedy, it seemed the only solace was in taking it all in. I remember how desperately I wanted to hear that they had pulled someone - anyone - from the rubble.

I remember that only weeks before, my wife and I had relocated from Dallas, leaving behind all our friends and family, and how we very much felt like we were on an island. I remember the eerily quiet skies as all planes were grounded. And most of all, I remember really wondering when, and if, we would get back to “normal.”

About a year later I was able to go to “Ground Zero.” Where once stood pillars of prosperity, there was now a great big hole - empty and lifeless. The metaphor was not lost on me. 9/11 put a hole in our country. But to the further the metaphor, that hole is now a monument - documenting not only the tragedy that occurred there, but more importantly the human spirit that lives on. Although wounded and scarred by our enemy, it is the wounds that build our character, and the scars that tell our story. May we never forget.