Remember

“We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all that was humanly possible.” – George Santayana

For those of us who are old enough to remember, September 11th, 2001 is a day we will never forget. We remember where we were, and what we were doing that day. We remember how we felt the moment we heard about what happened, and then the shock of seeing it play out on television. The entire country stopped and stared in horror on what we saw on our screens. After that day many parts of everyday life changed. While I was working in banking I remember learning about how that day changed the way checks were processed because with planes grounded for so long, the financial sector slowed to almost a stop. Air travel is completely different from what it was before 9/11 with more security and longer checkpoints. This will remain a day that will be considered an event that forever changed the United States as a nation.

Last Saturday was the 20th anniversary of 9/11. In Uptown Charlotte, a memorial was set up to honor those lives who were lost that day. Each flag represents one person who died. Their picture and name was attached to each flag. It’s hard to imagine how many lives have been forever impacted by that day. We must never forget those we lost, and who sacrificed that day.