Rebuilding Rob

I walked around for a good part of the day on Thursday, feeling like I should post my obligatory 911 reflection thoughts. But the more I thought about it, September 12 reflection post seemed a lot more appropriate.

I was watching the author Jeff Perlman post on TikTok yesterday talking about 911 and if other people have been talking about how unified Americans were on September 12, 2001; the day after the infamous terrorist attack.

On September 12, 2001 America was wounded. We were hurting: but we were hurting together. We were scared of what the world would be like going forward. We knew some changes would have to be made to our day-to-day lives: but we were determine to not let those things change us.

His bigger point was looking at America today, 24 years later, we are more divided than ever. I’ve seen similar posts on social media where people are saying they wish that we could be more like we were on September 12 than we are today.

Perlman also said, somewhere in there, that a lot of Americans have forgotten 9/11. For those of us who lived through it, I don’t think that’s possible. If the space shuttle Challenger explosion was the Kennedy assassination of my generation, then 9/11 was our Pearl Harbor moment. Those kind of things are impossible to forget they are tattooed forever into our consciousness.

But as a high school teacher, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I look at my students. I’m realizing that all of them have grown up and a post 9/11 a world. In fact, the entire “Gen Alpha“ demographic has. They have no idea what the world was like before 9/11 because they didn’t live in that world.

But for those of us who remember it, I think it’s impossible to not think that 9/11 was a major turning point in the history of this country; but maybe not for the reason we would suspect. Things have splintered off so badly. I miss the days when Democrats and Republicans would joke with one another about the ways in which they both sought to make America a better place.

Perlman mentions how on September 12 all 100 US senators stood together on Capitol Hill and sang “God bless America“ in unison. I agree with Perman when he said that that would never happen today. For the life of me, I have no idea how in the hell to bring the country back together, but I do know this: our current president, not the answer.

Inevitably, I come across some videos of some real history and some real historians who remind me that throughout human history, no empire has lasted for more than 250 years. In case you need help with your math, next year would be the 250th anniversary of the sign of the declaration of independence

I know I taught a little bit about this the other day, but I don’t think I’m gonna shake myself out of this funk anytime soon. I do sincerely believe that we are living in the beginning of they’re gonna decline of this magnificent political experiment called United States of America. And for that matter, I think we might already be living in World War III. We just haven’t officially named it yet.

I hope I’m wrong; because God help us if I’m right

I’m going to try to not let this topic bring down this blog. I’d much rather talk about the movies I watch, my relationship woes, my kids, dealing with my exes, and my random observations as I make my way through life.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related (and perhaps, not-so-related) posts:

• Teacher Armor and the Saturday Clearing
• The Extra Day: A Ten-Year Memory
• Of Training Wheels and Christmas Lights
• Charity Starts at Home (And I’m Back in My Childhood One)
• The Muscle of Empathy

The article “A 9/12 state of mind” first appeared in Rebuilding Rob.