Kkiefuik This photo was taken with Canon EOS 90D, CC BY 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
I turned on the news that morning mostly for white noise.
Minutes later, I watched Flight 175 hit the South Tower.
It was a beautiful early morning in Vancouver, the sky only just beginning to brighten, and I was getting ready to head to the office. It took me a minute to realize something was terribly wrong, and even as I watched it happen, I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing.
There are moments when the world changes in front of you. That was one of them.
Our friends and neighbours to the south were under attack.
Twenty-five years later, a lot has happened between our two countries. Governments have changed. We’ve agreed and disagreed. We’ve fought alongside one another and, from time to time, argued between ourselves.
But thinking of that September 11 reminds me of something more fundamental.
We are siblings first, friends second, and trading partners third.
In the days that followed, Canadians opened their homes and communities to stranded Americans and travellers from around the world.
In the years that followed, Canadians and Americans served together, bled together and mourned together.
We cried together.
And we rebuilt together.
It is worth remembering not only what happened that morning, but what happened afterwards.
People showed up for one another.
Never Forget.
