Today marks the eighth anniversary of the largest scale terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil. Every year I feel compelled, as many people do, to commemorate the huge loss suffered that day. But today, some of those memories, along with more recent events, have my mind running on a different track.

Many remember the apparent sense of political unity that existed in the days following the attacks. Many saw the absence of political strife as a sign that we were all pulling together. And in many ways, that’s exactly what we were doing. Many of us hoped against hope for a permanently kinder, more unified America. Unfortunately, like so many alliances forged in times of desperation, it quickly evaporated like the mirage it was.
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I am not the me,
not the me you thought I’d be,
not the one to set you free
and not the one you once believed
would stem the tides of seas.

I am more than me,
not the one you had foreseen,
but just like you I had a dream –
a delicate contingency –
depending on a “we.”

image: Untitled blue

we are the jigsaw,
reliant on each other
for our destiny.

image: James Jordan