9.11

I don't know anybody who died that day. I don't even know anybody who knows somebody who died that day. But that doesn't mean we weren't affected because of it.

I'm not going to lie, on days like today, I feel both guilty and disgusted. Guilty because, well, I could be a much better American. I could spend more time volunteering to help my fellow Americans. I could watch the news more often and do a much better job of researching candidates before voting time. It's not that I'm not interested in volunteering, I just don't. It's not that I don't watch the news, because I do and I actually enjoy watching it, but right now we don't get any channels, and I haven't been checking out Fox News to keep up with the country and the rest of the world as much as I should. I feel disgusted because I feel like the majority of this country ignores significant dates, or views them as a "vacation". Yesterday my facebook feed was filled with people talking about the Iowa/ Iowa State game. That's fine, it's kinda a big deal. But do you know how many people I saw on there today acknowledging today's date? Four. And of those four I felt that only two of them were really grasping the issue at hand. One status update even told people to stop pretending to be all patriotic just because it's September 11th. I'm not expecting everybody's statuses to be "I <3 America!" 24/7, but I feel like we should all pay our respects for the sacrifices made, not just on these dates, but all year long.

Do you know how many people know what Memorial Day is about? It's not about the "official first day of summer" or having a day off from work. It's about remembering the deceased, traditionally for those who served in the military, but also just for remembering the deceased in general.

I think it's important we don't forget the meaning behind certain events. Like today. Over 3,000 people lost their lives that day and another 6,207 lost their lives in OIF/OEF. Not to mention all those people's friends and families. That's a lot of people only directly affected.

Anyways, I'm at such a loss for this blog post right now. It probably sounds even more sporadic than any of my normal posts. Bascially what I wanted to say was please don't forget the significance of today's date and the sacrifices made not only on that day, but also because of that day. Whether it's somebody going off to war or the families and friends left behind after that tragic day.