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Spirit Matters: 25 years after 9/11, one thing endures · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Spirit Matters, 25 years after 9-11, One Thing Endures. Written
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  Speaker 1: by Gerilyn Zavada-Novak in Spirit Matters. This article is being
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  Speaker 1: read by an automated voice, brought to you by Everlit.
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  Speaker 1: What is there left to say about 9-11 that hasn't
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  Speaker 1: been said a thousand times since 2001? What, if anything,
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  Speaker 1: has changed, and what hasn't? The lives of everyone old
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  Speaker 1: enough to remember were irrevocably changed that day. Regardless of
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  Speaker 1: where they lived, I was 29 years old, working in
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  Speaker 1: a camp for people with disabilities in rural central Illinois.
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  Speaker 1: The naive belief I had that America was untouchable was
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  Speaker 1: shattered that day. In more recent years, my naive trust
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  Speaker 1: that the government always has our best interests at heart
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  Speaker 1: has gone up in flames as well. Certainly, victims and
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  Speaker 1: families of those at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and Shanksville,
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  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania have suffered the most. Emergency responders, medical professionals, residents
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  Speaker 1: in and around the targeted places, no one was left
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  Speaker 1: untouched that day. When terrorists flew those commercial airlines filled
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  Speaker 1: with passengers into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
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  Speaker 1: they weren't only targeting the people in those places. They
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  Speaker 1: were targeting the very fabric of the United States of America,
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  Speaker 1: and they did it by going after those places that
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  Speaker 1: symbolized what they saw as American elitism. our financial hub,
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  Speaker 1: our military headquarters, and were it not for the passengers
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  Speaker 1: banding together to thwart the hijackers' plans on the Shanksville flight,
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  Speaker 1: the White House. In the immediate aftermath, we watched in
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  Speaker 1: shock and horror replays of the planes striking the Twin
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  Speaker 1: Towers on a 24-hour news cycle that lasted months. We
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  Speaker 1: watched the towers burn and implode hundreds of times. We
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  Speaker 1: watched shocked, frightened, and injured citizens running for their lives
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  Speaker 1: and jumping out of the buildings as emergency responders ran in,
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  Speaker 1: many never coming out alive. In response to these attacks,
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  Speaker 1: Americans dug their heels in and, in the days, weeks,
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  Speaker 1: and months following the attacks, stood more united than ever
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  Speaker 1: before with patriotism, determined to not allow the terrorists the
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  Speaker 1: satisfaction of ripping us apart at our seams. Now, 25
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  Speaker 1: years later, where has that unity gone? What happened to
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  Speaker 1: the grit and unbridled determination to not let our enemies
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  Speaker 1: within and without destroy us? Today, 25 years since the
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  Speaker 1: worst terrorist attack in our country's history, Americans are more
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  Speaker 1: divided in ideology than ever before. The rapid growth of
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  Speaker 1: corporate media and artificial intelligence has only added fuel to
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  Speaker 1: the fire. Politicians know this and use it to their
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  Speaker 1: advantage to spread lies, misinformation, and division. Social media is
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  Speaker 1: an ideal tool for them to do this, as they
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  Speaker 1: regularly inflame the emotions of media-illiterate users and let those
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  Speaker 1: users do their dirty work by proliferating their lies and
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  Speaker 1: agendas through the sharing of their unfact-checked propaganda. And as
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  Speaker 1: far as the White House goes, just in the last year,
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  Speaker 1: the East Wing has been torn down, the Rose Garden
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  Speaker 1: paved over, the lovely grounds destroyed by equipment set up
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  Speaker 1: for a wrestling match. Mission Accomplished. It seems the terrorists
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  Speaker 1: didn't have to destroy the ideals our nation has been
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  Speaker 1: grounded in for 250 years. We have done a pretty
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  Speaker 1: good job of that ourselves. This past weekend, my husband
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  Speaker 1: and I watched a new Nine Elements documentary on Disney +,
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  Speaker 1: called Nine Elements, Reunited. I highly recommend it. Ironically, in
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  Speaker 1: this unprecedented time of destruction and division in our country,
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  Speaker 1: this particular documentary featuring the reunion of people injured... and
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  Speaker 1: those who rescued them on that horrific day reminded me
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  Speaker 1: of the America I remember before Nine Elements. An America
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  Speaker 1: where people were influenced less by the political lies that
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  Speaker 1: corporate media was spewing and more by the humanity woven
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  Speaker 1: into each of our hearts. An America where people connected
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  Speaker 1: on shared interests and didn't much care what each other's
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  Speaker 1: political affiliations were. An America where people saw someone suffering
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  Speaker 1: and didn't stop to ask if they were on the
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  Speaker 1: same side. but did what their conscience compelled them to do.
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  Speaker 1: Ease the pain of their brothers and sisters. Watching the
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  Speaker 1: stories of each of these people and the outright miracle
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  Speaker 1: that some of them are still here after having 50
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  Speaker 1: surgeries or more was humbling. These people were victims of
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  Speaker 1: the absolute worst humans have to offer and for whatever
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  Speaker 1: reason were spared from death that day. They have literally
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  Speaker 1: been to hell and back. Their recoveries were long and arduous,
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  Speaker 1: but they are still here. They are living their lives
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  Speaker 1: with their families, appreciating the marvelous gift of one exquisite
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  Speaker 1: breath at a time. Given all that has transpired over
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  Speaker 1: the last 25 years, Nine Elephants, Reunited is a beautiful
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  Speaker 1: reminder that no matter how much it seems evil gets
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  Speaker 1: the upper hand, the heart of humanity, grounded in the
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  Speaker 1: God of Love, is indestructible and regenerative. That is something
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  Speaker 1: that foreign and domestic terrorists alike can never change, no
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  Speaker 1: matter how powerful they think they are, and no matter
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  Speaker 1: how hard they try. Spirit Matters is a weekly column
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  Speaker 1: by Gerilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the
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  Speaker 1: human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33 at yahoo.com.