Honoring our history

Both in our private lives and also in the big public horrors we face together, life is often hard. For my generation, that first shocking experience we share was the assassination of a president. We all seem to remember where we were when we learned JFK had been killed. Similarly, we all know what we were doing when the first plane flew into the World Trade Center. Life is made up of far more than such tragedies, of course, but they leave an imprint. They should.

The Twin Towers were destroyed by hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. The Pentagon’s western wall partially collapsed by hijacked American Airlines Flight 77. Hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed to the Earth near Shanksville, Pennsylvania all, of course, on Sept. 11, 2001. I was driving to work when the first plane hit. I pulled over as the news spilled out of the radio, shaken, and called home.

I also remember one year later. Sept. 11, 2002. I remember a completely unexpected rush of activity at Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA. It was a Wednesday, usually a slow mid-week day for adoptions. But not that year. That year, our adoption lobby was full of families looking to take home a homeless animal, families looking to add to their own family, to give unconditional love to homeless animals who of course were unaware of the anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. That annual, apparently subconscious, adoption drive on Sept. 11 lasted several years.

 

No longer a fresh, singular pain, 9/11 has become part of a bigger story. But we do remember. We should. And we all should perhaps do something kind today, something generous for another; something that affirms life, something opposite of the senseless, horrible death meted out to innocents on this day back in 2001. Many options come to mind, but one such kind and generous act is to consider taking home a homeless animal from a shelter.

Ken White is the president of the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA