Published: November 06, 2009 08:46 am      

Remembering: Our weapon against the passing of time

Can it be eight years since that morning of horror?

Since hijacked jets brought down the World Trade Center towers and battered our Pentagon?

Since 40 passengers wrestled for control of a hijacked airplane that crashed in a local field?

Since the day our national innocence was torn away by terror?

The passage of time has a way of dulling our emotions and smoothing the edges of our recollection.

That is why Saturday’s solemn ceremony in a former strip mine near Shanksville was so important.

With the turn of a spade in soil, we took another crucial step in the complex and evolving process of remembering.

The journey from the impact of United Flight 93 to a groundbreaking for a permanent memorial has been one of disagreement, debate and controversy – tears of grief often mixing with tears of anger.

We have progressed through uncertainties about the design, the cost and the land for a permanent Flight 93 National Memorial.

We have overcome disagreements between the families of the lost and those who were yoked to them through the random location of a national tragedy.

And now, we have begun the appropriate task of building a place of lasting tribute.

Yes, some questions are still to be answered.

But in just two years – by the 10th anniversary of that awful day – the first phase of a memorial of stone and concrete will stand near that hallowed place.

It began with a shovel plunging into the earth and will continue with dump trucks and bulldozers.

When the work is complete, even more people will make their way to Shanksville to see this monument to patriotism and sacrifice.

To visit this icon of remembering.

We hope that the temporary memorial – the source of our connection to history for eight years – can be preserved in a way that continues to allow us to experience its power.

Every note pinned to a fence, every memento left behind is part of the growing and diverse fabric of how we remember the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

And so it will be with the wind chimes and wild flowers of a new memorial, with concrete walkways and trees planted in just the right places.

They will take up the task of our remembering.

And remember we must.

To honor those who lost their lives that September morning.

And to honor those who have risked – and, for many, lost – their lives to assure that such an event does not happen again.

Remembering is our defense against apathy, division and fear.

Even against the relentless march of time.