September 11 is my brother's birthday

I will always remember September 11. It is a day of major significance to me, and has been for quite some time. For 26 years, to be exact. 26 years ago, September 11 was the day my younger brother was born.

At the school where I teach, the high school principal sent out an email to all teachers asking for their input on how we should remember the attacks of September 11 and outlined what we had done in previous years. My question was, why do we want to remember the attacks? Frankly, the attacks were incredibly horrendous and the thoughts and feelings that I experienced on that day are not ones I want to re-live. What purpose does it serve to remember the attacks? If we continue to remember the attacks, then we perpetuate the fear that the terrorists were trying to instill. We are doing exactly what the terrorists want. They want us to be afraid.

I do not want to be afraid.

Certainly, for those who lost friends or family in the attacks, the day has a completely different significance than it does for those like me who did not. I cannot begin to try to understand how much different their horror was compared to mine. Nor do I want to. If someone I knew wanted my help in celebrating the life of someone who was killed that day, I would naturally be there. Just as I would be there for someone who wanted to remember a mother who died from cancer, or a brother killed in a car accident.

So on September 11, I will call my brother to wish him a happy birthday. And I will remember the good times we've had and look forward to the next time. And I will be thankful that I have such a great brother. And that is how I will remember September 11.