Remembering Yesterday, silence and valuing the differences

Yesterday was September 11. For the first time it didn't seem like there was much made about the day. It has been seven years. To me it seems like it was last year or at least no more than a couple of years. That day stands out in my mind as one of the most memorable in my lifetime. And the days following when three of us, my boss and another friend/employee, tried to make our way back to Colorado from Washington, DC/Richmond. It was an adventure - planes, almost trains, cabs, and automobiles. We traveled in silence in our mini-van much of the time, turning off the radio. We missed most of the early TV coverage. We had a mission to get home to our loved one's. We drove all night. Stopping on the roadside in the mountains of Virginia at midnight when the massive accident shut down the highway. We walked along the side of the road in silence just to pass the time.

After making it home, I was struck by the silence there too. No planes in the sky, no shouting on TV, everyone looking out for one another. Peaceful in the face of horrible devastation.

Now, this year's anniversary is in the middle of an election. People barely stopped the bickering, shouting and mud slinging to honor the dead. Can't we be civil to each other and value and respect our differences. That's what has made our country so great. We are so diverse and that's what creates so much opportunity - differences create new ideas, our differences help us solve problems. Why can't we see these differences as good and return to a world in which we respect ourselves and each other.

I think we need a movement to re-institute civility in our civil society.