how quickly people forget 9/11

On 9/11 I was working for a company in lower Manhattan, on Broad Street, and had the unfortunate privileges of having front row seats for the day's events.  I remember in the years that followed, both at that company and a different company I worked for, the day of 9/11 was marked by a moment of silence at the time which corresponded to when the first airplane struck the Twin Towers.  That momentary pause grew shorter and shorter as the years passed, as people were in a rush to resume their work.  I can't recall when, but at some point in the intervening years (and I am at a different company now, so maybe this was always the way they did it here) that moment of silence got replaced with an email.  After all, people are so busy, who can spare even a moment to reflect?  Maybe those who had time t some point might read that email, but who are we kidding?  This year 9/11 came an went and there was not even that email. 

Am I surprised?  Not at all.  We are so busy moving from one task to the next, from gobbling up one bit of information and moving on to the next, that there is no time to reflect on or remember the past, nor do we want to.  America would prefer to think of the world as benign and to deny that there is unredeemable evil which must be eradicated.  I also realize that I am getting older, and some of the people around me at work were in diapers when these events occurred.  They have no personal recollection of what happened, and doubt any lesson they may have had in school truly impressed upon them the significance of what happened that day.