Yahoo! is asking Americans how September 11 changed them. Below is an account from a reader.
September 11, 2001 changed me and my family forever, not solely because of the terrible events of that day. We also were changed when, on September 5, 2004, a shoulder launched mortar was fired into the parade grounds at a United States Army base in Iraq, where members of the Paris, Illinois National Guard unit were serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, killing two people, and injuring many others.
One of the two members killed was Charles Lamb, my cousin. Even though I didn’t know Charlie, as most people called him, well, his grandmother and my grandparents did know him and love him, so I share their grief.
[Your story: How has September 11 changed you?]
Charles belonged to a younger generation than myself and my sisters; he was part of a group that one of my sisters labeled “the midget mafia” because they were much younger (and therefore shorter at the time) than we were and they spent a lot of time at our grandparents’ house together. His death is still a shock to us. The old saying that blood is thicker than water holds true; for seven years later there is a palpable gap in our family, even for those of us who weren’t close to him. Charles should be here, with us, now, part of this up and down crazy existence that most of us call life.
September 11, and more immediately, Charles’ death, brought home to me the meaning of the phrase “Freedom isn’t free.” In Charles’ case, his death cost a wife her husband, his mother and father a son, his grandparents a grandson and my grandparents a great-nephew they cared about deeply. The rest of the family, especially those that had the privilege to know him well, also suffered a loss that cannot be repaired.
I valued my freedom and this country that gives it to me before 9/11 and Charles’ death, but now that I have come to understand its price in terms beyond the intellectual, I value it more. My heart weeps at the cost. Yet, his sacrifice was not in vain, and the things that he stood for resonate through all the generations of my family, from my grandfather, who is about to turn 92, to my daughter, who is 9 1/2 and never got the chance to meet him. She was asked in class one day to describe a hero; her choice was Charles.