What I will do on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11

This Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of September 11th when terrorists hijacked four planes succeeding in plowing three of them into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The United States Capitol would have been the fourth target had it not been for the brave passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 who died stopping the hijackers from reaching their supposed intended target when their jet crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania killing everyone aboard including the terrorists.

Being “The Mayor of Realville”, it would be easy for me to blog about how we are as unsafe now, if not more so, as we were twenty years ago in the wake of last month's disastrous withdrawal from what is now the Taliban controlled country of Afghanistan. The notion of saying there will never be another terrorist attack like 9/11 on American soil again is like saying there will never be another mass shooting in Anytown, USA at a church, school, workplace, movie theater, concert or college campus. It’s not a question of if. It’s when. I’ll save that subject, however, for another time, if at all.

I’m not afraid nor am I the least bit sorry for saying this. I get bored very quickly and cringe every time I hear someone regurgitate that same old predictable “Where were you when so-so happened” story.

In the words of Matthew Perry’s Chandler Bing, and no I don’t know if he ever said such a thing on the show, Friends (1994-2004), my response to anyone feeding me their where were you when diatribe, is “Can you be ANYMORE BORING???”, with a special emphasis on the ANYMORE BORING part. Or to quote James Gandolfini’s mobster, Tony Soprano, from "The Sopranos" (1999-2007) ’Remember when’ is the lowest form of conversation.”

Sept. 11 is no more different than the “Where were you when moments” of decades past that captured our attention. From Pearl Harbor and President Kennedy’s assassination to the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the Oklahoma City bombing, the list is endless.

You will get no argument from me that September 11 is a national tragedy - an event so horrible that those of us who witnessed the atrocities live on television and those who were there and lived to talk about it will never or should ever forget. For the families and friends of the close to 3,000 souls lost that day, however, the mourning and nightmare will never end and will continue to be repeated every year on that dreadful day during the reading of those who perished at an hours-long ceremony at One World Trade Center where the Twin Towers stood.

For the rest of us, though, or maybe it’s just me, who personally didn’t know anyone lost in the attacks, September 11 is a tragic event kept in the back of my mind. The truth is life still goes on.

Twenty years ago, September 11 fell on a Tuesday. The tragic events in the years since did not deter Americans from going on about their daily lives.

We went to work, school and attended church services. Nothing stopped people from flying, vacationing, shopping, dining at restaurants, going to movies, sports events and attending concerts. All this, despite us now living in a COVID-19 world, the last thing on anyone’s mind that perfect blue-sky early fall September morning when they woke up and walked out the front door was they would be victims of a terrorist attack.

I seriously doubt that was what the close to 3000 souls thought when they arrived to work at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and boarded those four planes that fateful morning.

They did exactly what we do every day. It is something we should do every year on this dark day, other than taking a moment to remember the fallen.

Although 9/11 falls on a Saturday in 2021 and while many will probably be off that day, for some of us it will still be a workday.

This Saturday I will be doing what everyone else across the country was doing in between watching the news or listening to the radio twenty years ago. Carrying on with their regular everyday lives but still keeping thoughts on those lost on our minds.

I’ll be working my usual three to midnight shift, but at home, and will have the television on in the background just to have something to listen to while taking calls and returning tickets. Instead of having the flat screen tuned in to the cable news stations who will run endless overage from Ground Zero, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania with interviews from those who were there on 9/11, or watching repeated documentaries on the History, National Geographic and Discovery channels, however, I’ll be doing what I did twenty years ago days after the attacks. As a means to take my mind temporarily off that day’s events, I watched 'Caddyshack' (1980) and "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996) almost a week later.

This Saturday will be no different. I might have the flat screen tuned to the weekly "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2001-2011) marathon on the Sundance channel. Maybe have "West Side Story" (1961) on in the background on Turner Classic Movies. Or given that Saturdays is a part of Super Sci-Fi Saturday on MeTV over the course of the remaining six hours of my evening shift I’ll have the TV turned to Dallas’ local Channel 55 starting with The Three Stooges at six and then "Svengoolie" (1995-Present) at seven where every week a cheesy B-grade horror and/or sci-fi movie airs followed by episodes of "Star Trek" (1966-1969), "Buck Rogers In the 25th Century" (1979-1981) and "The Night Stalker" (1974-1975).

Conservative political commentator and radio personality Rush Limbaugh (1951-2021) summarized it best when asked by Time back in 2003 how Americans should commemorate the September 11 attacks every year and whether that day should be a national holiday for the country.

"We should resolve to make Sept. 11 as robust a day as we can. It should feature Americans behaving in their unique, extraordinary ways. Those whose lives were lost should be remembered as they died, in busy activity, never dreaming that that day would be their last on Earth. We will not need to shut down to remember."

This Saturday’s horror movie on "Svengoolie" will be "Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1953). On this depressing day of all days, couldn’t me, if not all of us, use a good laugh?

©9/8/21