911, Will it become this Generations Pearl Harbor?

Submitted by Janet Sidewater (United States), Sep 16, 2006 at 16:34

I was recently in Honolulu for the first time and visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial. I was amazed to find that after over 60 years, people from all over the world begin lining up at 7:00 a.m. and the tour is sold out almost everyday. I felt the heartbreaking destruction but I also heard a rather inspiring story that proves that human beings have not lost all sense of humanity.

I was told by one of the guides that the Bugler present that day in 1941 still resides in Honolulu. Every month or so he receives money from one of the Japanese bombers to buy flowers to scatter over the harbor. But what really surprised me was the impact that event still has on people at an international level! Sixty years from now, will we see people lining up from all over the world to pay their respects to the fallen and heros of 911? Will we still be able to comprehend and examine what that sickening act of cowardice and destruction represents? 911 impacted me at a very deep level and changed my life forever. Somehow I fear it is already being forgotten, or downplayed and is not recognized as the truly evil act it represented. I hope I am wrong.

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