Quiet Sunday

Today I found myself glued to the TV watching every 9/11 remembrance program and footage.  The most memorable was the CBS 9/11: Ten Years Later, shot from the point of view of the fire fighters, Engine 7-Ladder 1 Company to be exact.  I got chills from the footage (they were in Tower 1 filming, when Tower 2 collapsed).  Ten years after and you feel the impotence and pain all over again.

We went out today to the farmers market and found a city in repose.  It was not a normal, end of the Summer Sunday.  People were quieter, and in a self-reflective mode.  There was a guy playing American hymns in a saxophone.  Some kids were wearing American flag t-shirts.  And District police were dutifully positioned at certain corners. 

The hardest and saddest thing is that  first responders who rushed to help the victims of the attacks, ten years later, and it is them who need our help now.  Half of them have illnesses borne from the toxic debris they inhaled during the countless days that followed the attacks.  These brave men and women are dying, quietly and unceremoniously.  Every day is September 11, 2001 for them.