Sept. 11 – Never Forget
Hi John,
I know how busy our lives can get – how daily activities at work or with family can be our priority. We move through each day while historical events come and go. But a life-changing experience so stunning and gripping in its magnitude as 9/11 persists in our minds forever. Then daily life interrupts, and we’re on to the business at hand.
Do you remember where you were when life came to a screeching halt 22 years ago on Sept. 11 at 7:14 a.m.? Our world changed in an instant. ‘And it stays changed,’ as Tom Porter, a Mohawk spiritual leader once remarked on a Sept. 11 anniversary.
At the same time our country was under attack, I was invited to serve as head dancer for an upcoming powwow. I was putting together my regalia and trying to prepare myself for this honor and responsibility when I heard the news. At such a moment, I was driven to record it in a poem:
Excerpt from “Veteran’s Dance”
During this round I want
to think of you then
When each step
means something
and you would be
out of the mirrored
building and
in front of me,
dancing too…
…This is the worst war
we’ve ever seen:
surrounded and unarmed,
Shadows
Unraveling everywhere.
We have our dreams for the future: where our families can enjoy a life of peace and abundance, access to clean water and clean air is for everyone, and a protected land is assured for future generations.
We also have a shared history, a tattered record with events such as 9/11 that we just as soon let drift into yet another chapter of our experience. But let us never grow silent and apathetic. Let us never forget. Let us be that persistent voice calling for peace, and racial and environmental justice. In remembrance of the 2,977 who died, let us send out that voice.
So shall we be of this mind.
Miigwech,
Dee Sweet
Native Vote Manager
Wisconsin Conservation Voices
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