One September Morning. September 11 2024.

       On this day,  September 11th 2001, I was on the island of Inishmore, Ireland riding a bicycle to a prehistoric fort on the northern coast.  When we arrived,  there was something terribly wrong.  There were cries and embraces and looks of distress across the faces of almost every tourist off the several tour busses in the parking lot.  Almost all those tourists were Americans.  My wife asked the person selling tickets into the fort what was happening.  That's when we learned about the North Tower of the World Trade Centre being struck by a plane.  Although we were pretty sure at the time. no one knew if it was an attack or an accident.   We traveled down to a local pub just in time to see the south tower being struck.   As tragic as it was at that moment,  I am not sure that we all knew just how devastating this terrorist attack was to be.  

      It was an attack on American soil.  It was a civilian target.  The casualties were in the thousands.  And it was the start of two decades of young American's and allies going to war.  It made the free world vulnerable.  It shook democracy to the very core.  And like any good war, it made many of the rich richer and many of the poor veterans.  

    That was my first trip to Ireland.  It was at a time Ireland was called the Celtic Tiger as the economy was booming.  Things were changing at that time.  There was money for construction, and cars, and entertainment.  To my surprise, Ireland may have been the first country I have ever visited where Americans were more to the liking of the locals than Canadians.  The Irish consider America their colony.  And when the chips were down that week of 9-11,  the Irish took care of their visiting colonials with all the courtesy and compassion they could muster.   That old saying "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" was so very visible those first few days.   Not just in Ireland,  but across the world.  I am not one to look for the silver lining.  And lord knows the events of 9-11 were so absolutely horrific,  but the world also saw kindness.    

    In 2007 I went to New York.  It was the year before they tore down Yankee Stadium and I wanted to see the House the Babe built.   My son and I went with an old friend and members of his family.  Everywhere I went the people from New York were friendly, kind, hospitable, helpful.  Of course, I had a pocket full of pins.  Canadian flag pins for everyone.  R.C.M.P. pins for cops.   I had a visit with a policeman working the baseball game one night.  I commented on how the reputation of New Yorkers as rude standoffish people just wasn't true.  The cop offered two line explanation that stayed with me:   

"Well,"  he said.  " Rudy Giuliani taught us the value of a tourist dollar, and making the city welcome was very good for the local economy.  And when the world reached out to our city like they did in 9-11, well you realize life is just too short to be cranky and angry all the time."   

   I went back to New York with my wife a few years later.  We weren't disappointed.  We attended the 9-11 monument on the site of the World Trade Centre.  I can't describe what I felt there.  It certainly wasn't a peaceful easy feeling.  It was more like I was standing in a place where a war in my life time started.  I was, and it did.  A horrible war that added so many more casualties to the long list of that day. 

  A moments thought to all those people in New York who on September 11th 2001 thought they were starting their work day, or shift who never got to go home.  And all those they left behind.  We got you.