Remember 9-11-01

I was driving to work today with the news on. What an emotional drive that was for me. Hearing these little children read 1200 plus names and occasionally add in “my father…” “my mother..” it tore at my heart! The tears stayed in, but the lump in my throat would not go away, for a long time!

For those who don’t know, today is the anniversary of that day. You know the day very well it was on the news non-stop. The day that changed the United States of America, the way we know it, forever. I am talking about 9-11-01.

I have heard people saying that that day did not affect them at all. They didn’t have relatives who worked in NYC, they don’t live in NYC, or what have you, and therefore they are and were unaffected by the tragic events that took place. That is completely false, and I do not understand how they really believe it.

Do you realize that from that day onward, the USA changed from the way we have known it to be? Let me explain this to you. No matter where you live, even if you live under a rock somewhere you were affected you just might not be aware of it. USA has lost its freedom. Lost the security of having a free life. We had a worried free life here the USA. We were NOT worried about terrorist before this somber day. You see if you compare to Israel and say well they live with terrorists bombing, etc, now we are getting a taste of their daily lifestyle. Yes, we got the taste, but you see we are different here in the USA. We never had to worry about it and the land of Israel always had this history with her enemies. SO stop comparing the two. We are in America we do not have terrorists’ actions so known to us going on here. We do not have people who would bomb themselves up to kill others. We do not have…. oh, I forgot, we do have this now. We do need to worry about the person sitting next to us on the train who is acting a weird, and jumpy. We are going to analyze every mid eastern looking man now even more so then before.

We are afraid now. We live in fear. We did not have this two years and one day ago. We were living life they way we always lived it. Now we are more protective of our life. Now we make sure there’s security outside all the shuls on the Yomim Noraim, tighter security than prior years. If we were not affected, why do we have this? Do those people who don’t want to think about how it affected them see this? Do they realize that we lost or security in living in America? And that the Jews are being subjected to scrutiny because the rest of the world feels that the Jews knew about, they had to know, because so many were late to work that day, or didn’t show up. So we knew and just didn’t share the news with the rest of the world. Anti-Semitism is rising once again, and that is directed towards us, since we are Jewish.

Did you also note what the affects of having the financial district close up for a long time? Having the stock market shut down for weeks on end, and not sure what will happen? Even if you do not own stock, you realized that the US economy was affected and still struggling to go back up. Yes, it the 9-11-01 tragedies are still crippling us, and we are only now trying to get out of it. That is just financially. Imagine the organizations who collect Tzedaka from people and they rely on certain donors to give them a large sum, and now, they are not getting it anymore, so they not only do they need the small check, they need a backer once again. You see our schools are affected because of the supporters might have taken a big hit from the stock market and now are unable to support the organizations they used to support. This is our future! So yes, it does directly affect us a whole!

We live in the USA we owe the USA for letting us live the way we live and not question and bother us regarding our religious beliefs. We need to thank the country for letting us live here for as long as we have. Go back in history, and look how the Jews were persecuted in each country there were in. The Romans, the Greeks, Egypt. Yes they were all part of Hashem’s master plan, but here we are living free to do what we need to do. In Europe, just a few generations ago we have the holocaust that tried to destroy us, and USA accepted us into their country to live free. FREE! Something our brethrens in Europe now don’t always get to see (Belgium where anti Semitism is strong!!).

So before you say that what goes in USA does NOT affect you, think again. Think of the repercussions. Remember that being a Jew, we are always blamed for things and will be used as scapegoats.

REMEMBER 9-11-01. WE SHALL NEVER FORGET!