Today Is 9/11.

I know. You already know that. How could you not. I feel really bad for people who have a birthday on 9/11. It used to just be a normal day. The 11th of September. Now, it's just 9/11. It will ALWAYS now be 9/11. Nine Eleven. September 11th. No matter how you say it, it will always be one of the darkest days in our history.

Maybe now because I'm older, it gets harder to watch the 9/11 shows on cable. "Secrets of 9/11" or "Heroes of 9/11" to "Voices on the 88th Floor" show up on the guide about this time of year. Watching the 42 different angles the planes hitting the building is one thing, but even eleven years later, seeing people jumping to their deaths gets hard to take.

If you remember when it happened (and who doesn't?) we didn't see all that. The TV networks didn't know what was happening. And we didn't know all the stories. Of all the people on the planes, and in the Towers, and in Pennsylvania. All we knew was something terrible was going on. And that's when the country came together. It will always be talked about that way, since most of us didn't live during World War 2. The last time a national tragedy brought us all together.

It didn't matter who you were, or what your background was, we were--and still are--Americans. We were attacked, and we were pissed. And we, even if for just a few months, were nicer to each other. More considerate. More compassionate. Now, it's still an important day in American history, but the sentiment is gone. We are back to just being people who don't know that person in line ahead of you at the store. Americans, yes. But not Americans like we were.

On 9/11.