The Difference Between 9/11 and Covid-19

It seems like every American has a story about 9/11. The memory of that morning is seared in the collective consciousness of an entire nation. It's not because of national pride. That day was the embodiment of trauma, a horror that unfolded in real time on the national news, a tragedy that struck straight to the heart with its brutal reminder of mortality's callous indifference.

There are few moments in recent history that even come close to this level of emotional shock. The JFK assassination. The Challenger disaster. But this moment somehow felt worse than anything that had come before. A country was held captive, watching helplessly as thousands of people were murdered right before our eyes.

I remember that morning so vividly. The details stand out to me like the memory itself is a towering monolith in my mind. I was awakened by a phonecall from my grandmother. She sounded frantic, her throat thick with tears.

"You better turn on the TV, Jay. Turn it on right now. Your mamaw has told you this day was coming, and you better listen. God's coming back to claim this world, we are living in the end times. Get right with the Lord," she told me.

Bleary eyed and still shaking the shroud of sleep, I stumbled into my living room and turned on the news. One of the planes had hit, and smoke billowed from the tower. Shortly after the second plane struck. I held my hand over my mouth to suppress the gasps as victims leaped from windows to escape the flames. All of these details have been recounted to the point of cultural cliche.

But the point I want to drive home about this event is this: as I watched those buildings collapse, and I felt that crushing agony so viscerally pressing down on my very heart, so helpless, so devoid of hope, the tears streaming my cheeks…I knew in that moment I would have done anything in my power to save those people.

I think the entire country, all eyes glued in this eerie connection of solidarity through the slipstream of countless television screens spanning the continent, was united in that emotion. Almost anyone would have done the same, would have gladly sacrificed their own life if necessary, to stop this senseless loss. But none of us had that power.

Fast forward to the year 2021.

Right now, thousands of people are dying every day in America again. But they are not being murdered on the national news by terrorists. This time those people are being killed by a virus, Covid-19.

On September 9th, 2021, the Covid-19 death toll in America was registered as 3,231.

The terror attacks of September 11, 2001, took 2,977 lives.

Thus far, the Covid pandemic has killed over 656,000 people. That is over 220 times the deaths of 9/11.

I want to stress the major difference here between these two events. Unlike the helplessness of watching nearly three thousand people die in a matter of minutes twenty years ago, Americans right now have the ability to make a difference in the Covid-19 pandemic, and to try and help SAVE LIVES. Why aren't they doing it?

I want you to imagine how you felt the morning of 9/11. I want you to imagine the way your heart was wrung like a wet rag in your chest, how you felt trapped by fear in your own living room, how you suddenly felt connected to every other American in an unexplainable sense of national unity. If you could go back to that day, and you knew all you had to do to help save those lives was to take a vaccine, would you do it?

This is the choice you are being asked to make right now.

The Americans dying of Covid-19 are just as real and just as valuable, just as American and just as human, as the Americans who died on September 11th, 2001. There is no excuse for not doing everything in your power to save those lives.

The deaths attributed to Covid-19 may not be as dramatic. They may not be happening all at once and broadcast on the national news, but Jesus Christ, can you imagine if they were? Can you imagine how you'd feel if suddenly those 656,000 Americans dropped dead of a poisoning agent, or a bomb set off in a city, or anything else? The pain and outrage. The torment would be unspeakable.

On the sliding scale of moral choice, the right option here is absolutely crystal clear. Americans have the power to make a difference. Americans have the power to save their fellow citizens from an enemy that is unleashing terror attacks daily on our soil. That power is in becoming vaccinated.

This is not a matter of politics or political agenda. This is not a matter of media bias or government over reach. This is simply a matter of being asked to do the right thing for your fellow countrymen.

So, do the right thing. Stop listening to misinformation. Stop listening to disinformation. Stop making excuses and sitting on the sidelines while literal doctors and scientists beg you for your help.

I again ask you to remember your emotions on the morning of and days following September 11th. Remember the overwhelming sense of solidarity you felt with first responders. The firefighters and police officers who sacrificed their own lives charging up the steps of the Twin Towers, into the inferno of the unknown. Those who spent the exhausting hours digging through rubble and debris looking for survivors.

Right now, if you are refusing to get the vaccine, you are basically refusing to help those first responders. You might as well be there, standing between a firefighter and a person trapped under hundreds of pounds of stone. Instead of helping them, you're simply telling that person, "No. Let them die."

Is this the decision you want on your conscience?

Americans are dying, and unlike 9/11, you have the choice to save them.

After 9/11, we were willing to do ANYTHING to prevent another attack like this happening on American soil. We were willing to go to war. To spend countless resources, time, and lives. We were willing to give up a portion of personal privacy and freedoms under the Patriot Act, including never being able to fly again without possibly being patted down at the airport and taking off our shoes.

And now, all citizens are asked to do is wear a mask and receive a shot? A shot that literally costs nothing, and might MAYBE give you a headache? A shot that comes with side effect risk of much less than one percent?

I don't understand the hesitancy. Not only is it the safest and most effective vaccine ever invented in history, but it's literally our best protection right now against a virus wiping out our neighbors left and right, much worse than terrorism or mass shootings or most other illnesses facing humanity as a whole.

All you are being asked to do is consider others' safety. That is it!

Get the vaccine. Save lives. Even if the only life you save is your own, it's still worth it. What excuse can you possibly give?