Honor and Respect

I don't know about you, but the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks hit me pretty hard last week.  I didn't want to put on the TV because of the programs and news shows commemorating the anniversary.  It's not that I didn't care about what happened.  Quite the opposite.  As a New Yorker and as a human being, I remembered and relived the intense emotions of that day--fear, uncertainty, shock, sadness, grief.

This past April, I went to Ground Zero in New York City.  I stood by the two reflecting pools, and around the perimeters, I looked at the names of those who perished.  I saw flowers left behind by loved ones who visited.  I stood under the Survivor's Tree, the tree that somehow withstood the collapse of the Twin Towers, and I cried.  I simply broke down at the reality of what happened, at the many lives that ended so violently.

And at that place where such tragedy occurred, at that somber memorial, I saw a young girl of about 12 or 13 smile happily for a photo.  What she did struck me as out of place.  She was obviously too young to have lived through that fateful day, and her memories of it are all secondhand from parents, teachers, TV, and the Internet.  I didn't blame her for her youth and innocence, but I had a difficult time grasping how anyone could show such cheerfulness in a place of such sorrow.  It was similar to another young woman sometime back who took a selfie happily posing by the infamous gates of Auschwitz.

I know I'm a fuddy-duddy.  I know I strongly hold on to old-fashioned values--respect, honor, decency, humility--in a time when those values are ignored by so many.  However, those values do not and should not pertain to any particular time and place.  They are human, universal values that transcend the ages and national boundaries.  When we go to memorials and cemeteries, we should pause and reflect.  Give some thought to our predecessors.  Honor and respect them.

For the record, I did have my picture taken at Ground Zero as a personal keepsake of my visit, but I didn't smile.  My heart was full of emotion and my head full of thoughts of the roughly 3,000 people who died in that spot.  There was nothing for me to smile about.

Respectfully yours from the perch.