Ten Years Gone

Ten Years Gone

The wrist band bracelet from the Wauwatosa Fire Dept said, “Never Forget 9- 11-01.”

I don’t there has been one day since 9/11 that I don’t think about the day our Twin Towers fell.

That day, as I was driving between different branches of my employer, I couldn’t believe the quiet and stillness all around. It was a gorgeous day; the sun was shining and the road was wide open. I was the only car on the road. There were no airplanes in the sky. Just the drone of my Mustang‘s engine. The stillness was disturbing. As I slowly coasted to a stop sign at the end of an off ramp, I said to myself, “ It’s all different now. ” and it was…

Every time I see a Jumbo Jet in the sky or the numbers 9-1-1. I remember that day. The small rock in the pit of stomach has never completely gone away. Like most people, the events of 9-11 changed me personally like it changed the rest of the country. Originally this narrative was going to be about those changes, and why I thought it mattered, but I scraped it. I watched Paul Simon sing “the Sounds of Silence.” at Ground Zero, (one of my favorite songs), then I went for a long motorcycle ride.

Traffic was light as I headed out of Milwaukee on my ride of reflection. I gathered my thought about what I wanted to say. As I rode my thought came to me.

In the general scheme of things America is a young country. People smarter than me compare the USA to a teenager. I would say that they are correct. Our country is like an impulsive teenager, who has had to grow up to fast because of a traumatic event. This would explain our actions over the last decade. It really has been a turbulent ten years. For a few months after 9-11 were united in a quest for our new normal. Resilient and determined, we started to rebuild. This, however didn’t last long. As a country, we first went on a reckless spending spree from 2003 through 2007. Surprisingly, the most popular fashion purchased was Political Partisanship. Not even the badly handled Hurricane Katrina could slow us down on our shopping trip. The two front War on Terror rages on 10 years later and our middle class wallets still say ”the economy ain’t so good” after we’ve maxed out the credit card in 2008.

On this day, ten years later we are more divided and confused then we have been since the Civil War. As we mourn the 2977 victims that died in New York on that horrible day, there is still hope. There is hope because a lot of people remember how united we were in the days and months after 9-11. There is hope because teenagers that grow up fast; still grow up. I should know…

G. Andrew Epperly

The Milwaukee Kidd