Barraga Reflects on 9/11

Editor's Note: The following was contributed by Suffolk Legislator Thomas Barraga

In the last several weeks with the intensive coverage of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 I found myself thinking about the Twin Towers and the two months I spent on active duty in Manhattan after the Towers fell.

Many of these thoughts come late at night as I lay in bed waiting for sleep to take hold. Part of me doesn’t want to forget and part of me needs to forget. For to dwell on that horrific act and all that I saw does no good physically or psychologically.

When I first visited the site soon after the Towers fell, my first reaction was shock at the enormity of the destruction followed by profound sadness for the thousands who were murdered.

I can only imagine how difficult it is for those of you who lost a loved one on that day, and for those of you who have lost loved ones since that day because of illness associated with their rescue efforts at ground zero. Your sorrow is great, deep and never ending. Let me respectfully offer you an observation based on something said to me by a 25-year0old severely wounded Marine four years after 9/11. He said “Sir, I don’t know if I’m going to make it but if I don’t I want my wife and child to be happy.”

I really believe the loved one you lost wants the same for you – the person and family they loved. They want you to remember them, to love them but to move on and have a good life and be happy.

It would, I believe, be the best way to give yourself closure, to honor them and to give them peace until you meet again.