I have spent my last three Septembers in Plattsburgh, NY. Each year during the second weekend in September, we remember the Battle of Plattsburgh, a pivotal battle that ended the final invasion by British troops in the northern states during the War of 1812. Each year we have a battle reenactment, a parade and a weekend full of festive events in Downtown Plattsburgh. The actual battle took place on September 11, 1814.
So tomorrow I will be out with fellow members of my Rotary Club at a series of events. I just got back from decorating our parade float. Tomorrow we will be preparing the track for our Roducky Derby and then sponsoring a Bed Race, both fundraisers that raise money for various local community service projects.
Of course, tomorrow is a day that is more nationally recognized for something else and my guess is that most people outside of Upstate NY know very little about the Battle of Plattsburgh. It is a day that will forever live in infamy and I still am personally haunted by the horror we experienced nine years ago.
For the rest of my life, I will never forget what happened on that day. We all have our own ways of dealing with that tragedy and I can't help but to get emotional on this day every year. I still feel sadness and vulnerability. Mostly, I still feel confused. I cannot fathom that there were people that would take such sophisticated measures to senselessly murder so many innocent and wonderful people.
Another thing that confuses me is how our society has responded to this. There is so much that I have heard over the past nine years that just doesn't make sense. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and their own way of dealing with a tragedy such as this, but that doesn't mean that I have to understand or approve of it.
There is always quite a bit of noise in the media this time each year and most of it just annoys me or makes me sad. What can I do about it? It is out of my control. Still, the phrase "Nine Eleven" makes me cringe every time I hear it. It has become too much of a catch phrase and I personally have a hard time with that.
I believe it should be a day to honor those who lives were ended prematurely. It is a day to remember how special those people were and and a day to comfort those who are still struggling to deal with such a tragic loss.
I choose on this day to remember one man who perished. He was not someone I knew very well. He was just a nice person who used to visit my place of business on occasion and who had some nice conversations with us while there. I happen to remember one conversation in particular, because it was shortly after the birth of my daughter. He took the time to congratulate me when he noticed the birth announcement by our cash register. He told me about his two daughters and how special they made him feel.
This man, Vic Saracini, passed away on September 11, 2001. He was a special person who shared a kind thought and I will always remember the way he spoke of how he loved his family. How can someone senselessly take the life of a person who had so much kindness in his voice, such a friendly smile and the sparkle of love in his eyes when he spoke of his beautiful children? Of course there is no answer to this, yet it happened. That is why I will always be confused.
There is a Garden of Reflection in Yardley, PA where people can go and remember Vic Saracini and some of the seventeen other loving people from Bucks County who perished on September 11, 2001.
"The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their daily lives, whatever is going on in them, and to ponder deeply the larger questions of life. We search again for not only the meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it - and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each other this way again." Dalai Lama
