Always Remember

The atom bomb was dropped by American armed forces on the city of Hiroshima at 8:16 am on August 6^th 1945. And whether you believe that the decision to launch the strike was just or not, the fact remains that 80,000 Japanese people lost their lives in the acute attack alone. Another 60,000 died in the months afterward. Nearly all the deceased were civilians, not soldiers, who, on a sunny Monday morning, were just going about their daily business.

Sixty-five years later on August 7^th 2010 a group of Japanese journalists traveled the rebuilt city of Hiroshima and randomly asked the young people who were out and about Why is today significant in Japanese history?

It took 10 to 15 encounters before someone knew the answer.

On a clear warm morning on September 11, 2001 people were out and about in and around the World Trade Center in Manhattan. On 8:46 am a plane hit the north tower and on 9:37 am a second plane struck the south tower. Both towers tumbled down into ash. Three thousand people lost their lives that day. All were civilians, not soldiers, just going about their daily business.

And while it is true that life must go on, it troubles me to think on this day 54 years hence  people walking near the Freedom Tower may forget the significance of 9/11. It troubles me to think that 9/11 may be reduced to a one day sale at Macys.

Because mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers and aunts and uncles and cousins and friends and sons and daughters died in Hiroshima and at the World Trade Center on their respective days of attack. They were all ordinary people standing in the crossfire of  ideology. They were human beings--not statistics. They were loved. Their lives had meaning. And they deserve to be remembered always for their sacrifice.