911 19

I can’t believe it was 19 years ago Today as I walked down Grosvenor Street London with the American Embassy behind me that the USA was being attacked. My wife called at around 2pm to tell me as I walked back from lunch to my office.

The World went into a different direction that day and perhaps it was no coincidence that 911 is the American Emergency dial number. The month preceding the day always confuses a Brit but today’s the day. It’s horrible and having been to the twin towers and the new Freedom Tower it still hurts. I met and know three people that were there in the towers and survived and each one was lastingly affected ( who wouldn’t be ). I know of others who were close though I knew none of the 2,977 that died. The fact remains they were all honest innocent working people. They all woke up that morning not knowing that they would die that morning.

Atrocities globally followed, these will never cease. Lessons were never learned, they never are and War is still an Agenda item. History repeats itself and no one can seemingly stop the rot. Peacemakers are few and far between the mania of it all prevails. Now the autonomous vehicles of war are being prepared and the rehearsal games with drones and rampant rhetoric can by accident become real at any time. The outcome is inevitable yet we roll on.

COVID-19 was an invisible to mankind , an invisible enemy that will not be easily rid of yet it arrived and killed. Like another dress rehearsal for worse to come another enemy. Yet mankind’s biggest enemy remains mankind and that is often as invisible as the virus.

The busy day, the busy life, the American Elections, the indexes of world exchanges, the masks we all wear and the pettiness we attend to continue. We are fragile yet believe invincible , we are susceptible yet arrogant, we are clever but so stupid , we are human.

Yet there is still hope, look around see the youth, see the kindness in community, see the elderly cared for see what you can do for someone else today. Life can be better if we all do something better and if we can take time out to stop living selfie but put others in your frame. If we start small it will get big and it will be infectious for through giving we receive and through perpetual taking we tank.

As I walk down Grosvenor Street today, the Embassy is no longer behind me, the crowds have gone, the buildings are largely empty and we can pause at 2pm in silence to remember, lest we forget. The garden of Memorial is on Grosvenor Square and it’s worth a visit if you pass there one day. There are no planes to now carry you across the pond of course and none that can do the damage that was done on that awful day. The President will go to the field in Pennsylvania where one came down to remember those that died.

Let’s try and make the difference, let’s at least try.