Today America remembers attacks on our eastern shores that transpired 9/11/2001. This anniversary in 2015, the 14th anniversary, has many people focusing on children who were born on that day.
On Sept. 11, 2001, 13,238 children were born in the United States, according to the Division of Vital Statistics. Today one of those children, Emily Berta, opened the New York Stock Exchange as an ambassador for the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance.
These children will be impacted by the date of their birth for as long as they live. One never knows what legacy they will leave. Accidents of birth can influence legacy as much as any planned event or deed.
September 11th in Tucson is not quite like the date in other places. A Tucson girl, Christina-Taylor Green, was born that day. Her best known quote is recounted in this Arizona Daily Star piece:
When Christina-Taylor met a little girl her age living in a group home, she told her family: “We are so blessed. We have the best life.”
Christina-Taylor Green was featured in Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11 on page 41 as Christina Taylor from Maryland. Her family then moved from Maryland to Arizona. The 10th Anniversary edition of the book, Faces of Hope 10 Years Later: Babies Born on 9/11, is dedicated to Christina-Taylor, who was murdered in an act of domestic terrorism in which a madman attempted to assassinate United States Congressperson Gabrielle Giffords.
The children of 9/11 will reinvent memorials into hope-filled days of action.
I personally cannot condone the ritual observance of days of tragedy, nor the militarization of remembrances. Legacy is what we make it. As a Tucsonan, as a matriot (feminine of patriot,) as an American, I choose to honor the lives lost, by working to decrease violence in all forms everywhere.
I pray, “Christina-Taylor, sweet Angel of Tucson, help us learn to live in love and peace.” Help us stop war, stop gun violence, stop religious violence. May the violence of the boundary markers of your life, a legacy you did not choose, never be repeated.
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As an aside – No I did not know C-TG. I have a friend who loved her dearly. I knew many of the people injured or killed that January day. No I did not know anyone killed in the Towers or the Pentagon or the flights; I know people who were in the Towers and lived. My step daughter worked in Lower Manhattan then in a building that was evacuated and walked home across the Brooklyn Bridge. When we lived in Arlington, my other daughter went to Junior High with kids who lost a parent when Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.