It's a clear blue day, bright and pretty. It's just about the kind of weather it was exactly five years ago. There are a lot of people and organizations trying to tell us how we should remember the events of that day. President Bush, standing on the American flag on a carpet, of all things (fitting symbolism, his trampling on the symbol of our nation), ABC/Disney with their made-up -- excuse me, "dramatized" -- version of the history leading up to the tragedy, CNN.com with its real-time streaming of five-year-old video, recreating the timeline.

At this time on 9/11/01, I was standing around with coworkers at a previous job and listening to the radio, trying desperately to figure out what was going on, as we hadn't seen any television that morning and there wasn't one in the office, and the web had been brought to its knees by an overload of activity. I still remember the radio news announcer repeating, "Extraordinary . . . extraordinary . . ." as if he had run out of all other words.

I remember us all walking to a coworker's nearby apartment to watch three televisions stacked on top of each other, all tuned to different channels, trying to make sense of it all. I remember wondering if my dad, who worked in Washington, D.C., and my various friends and family in both D.C. and New York City were safe.

I remember feeling all day as if I were about to vomit, riding home on a nearly empty train with tears running silently down my face, friends coming to hang out because no one wanted to be alone, barely eating for three or four days. I remember the skies, ominous and silent except for the occasional chilling scream of scrambling military jets. I remember the suspicious looks shot my way because I dared to wear a winter scarf designed to wrap around my head as well as my neck -- "Is she one of them?"

Yes, I remember quite well. I don't need anyone to tell me how, least of all the president or any media network. In fact, I don't think I could forget if I tried. What I want them to tell me is this: Will there ever be any evidence that this administration has learned a single constructive lesson? Will we ever regain the liberties we gave away out of fear? Will the rest of the world ever trust this nation again? In the end, will there be justice for all? If we can't answer "yes" to those questions, then maybe the terrorists will have won after all.

It's not too late. Demand justice. Demand your liberties, and exercise them without apology. Live and love freely and joyfully. Vote the lying warmongers out. We can do it as long as we don't let the powerful convince us to live in a constant state of fear.

I remember the silence. The planes from Logan airport that struck the World Trade Center were long gone from the clear blue skies as I drove onto the expressway in Boston. All air traffic was grounded and hardly any cars were on the road either. It was as if the world were stunned into silence.

The only place I felt any sense of ease was at work in those days. An editor at the Boston Globe, I felt I was at least doing something constructive at work. Otherwise, I couldn't tear my eyes away from television screens that kept the destruction of the twin towers on a repeating loop that felt like someone kicking me in the gut over and over.

We all stayed at work for dozens of hours a day. Our reporting was far from comforting: We tracked the movements of the hijackers around familiar spots in our own backyard.

Those details were important to uncover, but they seemed small in the face of so much pain for so many people.

I am one of many people who thought our country would shrink away from meaningless reality shows and senseless violence after such a horrific event. That we would hold on to this sense of what really matters. That the heroism of the firefighters and police would move us all to a selfless commitment to others.

Five years later, we find that the horror was used as an excuse to steal our precious freedoms and an arrogant march into battle against people we don't understand.

I long now for that silence.

The beginning of September 2001 had been a difficult one for me, full of transitions, new faces, and a new home. I had just uprooted my life, moved from the familiar confines of Boston to Berkeley, Calif., to start a masters of divinity program at the Pacific School of Religion. I knew very few people, and had left friends and family members back on the East Coast, many in NYC.

The night of September 10, I was exhausted and asked my roommate not to wake me up the next morning "even if World War III broke out." Something other than him did wake me up early that morning, an inner sense that something was wrong perhaps, and I saw on the inside of my bedroom door a note. I got up to read it, it said simply: terrorists have attacked NYC and D.C., your sister is okay.

Dazed and frightened, I stumbled out to the living room where my roommate's face and the television screen said everything. Seconds later, I watched in horror as the first tower began to collapse. This was worse than any nightmare. I had awakened to a suddenly changed world, where even the idea of world war would be flipped on its head.

It was then a day like many other Americans had on September 11. I burned through many cell phone minutes feverishly trying to get in touch with loved ones in NYC. As many found, the cells failed us, quick busy signals were all I could reach. Finally, a friend set up a makeshift website for everyone to post messages and share what we knew. Amazing stories were told. Someone who had escaped from a floor of the World Trade Center they had no business of getting off of. Another friend who had accidentally slept in that day, to be saved from who knows what fate had he not.

In the end, all were okay in one sense, but no one was the same. Those in NYC felt a sense of bonding that no one outside that city would ever fully grasp. And those who were elsewhere felt vulnerable in a way that seemed preposterous just the night before. And then, quickly, came the feared knee-jerk response from our leaders -- and the true disaster of the 2000 elections was suddenly clear. This confused man from Texas would be the voice that attempted to lead our country through this most precarious of times.

No suprise that, five years later, more Americans would blame his adminstration for the events of that day than did nine months after it occurred. So, where does that leave us? Besides in desperate need of a new world vision for how to treat our global neighbors, it leaves us needing real leadership now more than ever. Everything this country has done in response to these events since that day has been an unmitigated disaster. Two wars of very questionable value and results, thousands upon thousands of more dead, many of them innocent members of the U.S. armed forces who signed up in peace times with promises of citizenship, college education, and training. Civil liberties being eroded, and the reallocation of billions of dollars to defense spending. None of which responds to the real problem facing the United States: how to move closer to an equitable sharing of the world's resources. Because, in the end, no one hates freedom, they simply hate being on the wrong end of the resource war.

I hope and pray that we can find this balance soon, before it's too late. Only that will truly honor those who lost their lives on 9/11/01.

As UUSC's Civil Liberties Program Manager, I invited Rev. Dr. Dorothy May Emerson, community minister of Rainbow Solutions, Medford, Mass., to share her reflections on this, the fifth anniversary of 9/11 because I believe now, more than ever, we must stand and be counted.

In the coming days, weeks, and months we encourage everyone in our community to fully embrace our civil liberties especially freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the right to privacy and of course the right to vote. For me, I can think of no better way to pay tribute to September 11.

-- Wayne F. Smith

Although I live in the Boston area, I was in Tucson, Ariz., on September 11, 2001. My spouse (an investment consultant specializing in socially responsible investing) and I were attending the annual conference, SRI in the Rockies. We were up early for a meeting and flipped on the TV to check the weather — just in time to see the towers collapse. As horrible as that day was, I was grateful to be part of a compassionate, creative, activist community for the next few days.

In the days following 9/11, many people sought connections with others, more than a few finding their way to UU congregations. Tragedy brought us together, and we found solace and hope by creating community.

What happened to that hope? Somehow it seems to have been lost in the culture of hatred and fear that has been promulgated by our government and major media for the past five years. It’s been lost in stolen elections and wars fought in our name for revenge and for oil. It’s been lost in feelings of powerlessness as we watched our country’s failure to respond to people in desperate need in the Gulf Coast.

It’s time for us to get hope back. In order to do this, we need to acknowledge that something is terribly wrong with the so-called democratic system that operates this country. We need to study what has gone wrong, and strategize and act to reclaim true democracy.

In her book, Democracy’s Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life, Frances Moore Lappe quotes Deb Hook saying, “It is far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism.” That’s pretty much how I feel. Frances’s book and her essay in the current UU World, “Hungry for Democracy,” are great resources to help us think about what we need to do to turn things around and start living hopeful lives again.

We need to get serious about this, friends. It’s too late to give up. Our only choice is to act — and act now — to make sure we have a just and safe world to leave to future generations. What are you doing today to make sure the tragedies of 9/11 don’t happen again?

As I dropped off my son at daycare this morning, one of his teachers quietly said to me, “Have a peaceful day.” She told me she had known people who were lost on September 11. The pain of that personal loss was evident in her eyes, transmitted to me as she touched my arm.

Five years after September 11. As UUSC President Charlie Clements writes in this remembrance, it’s one of those moments you’ll always remember – where you were, what you were doing.

The morning of September 11, I had been working at UUSC for about a month. It was a beautiful day that morning, a fact I remember being frequently commented on. This morning, I couldn’t help but notice as I drove in to work it being an equally beautiful, clear day.

Have a peaceful day.

9/11
My five reflections.
Yours?

First, remember them.
It has been a hard five years for families who lost their beloveds on September 11, 2001. Remember them. Help them and their families. Care for their children and aging relatives who have lost the loving care of the beloved one. Hold them all dear . . . as if they are your own . . . for they are our own.

Five years in my family.
Five years is a long time. Children have grown to ages nine and six, fourth grade and first grade this year. A new child has come into our hearts -- she's just two -- and an elderly one has passed away. Family, ravaged by Katrina, still struggles. Assaults to our health have been vanquished! Hooray! Sweet friendships endure and partnerships are affirmed; we are happy to enjoy both.

Five years in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Remember the military personnel lost since 2001:
In Iraq- 3356 people
2660 deaths and 19,000 wounded from the United States.
117 from the United Kingdom.
115 from other countries.
In Afghanistan:
333 from the United States.
39 from the United Kingdom.
28 from Canada.
18 from Germany.
18 from Spain.
28 military from other countries.
And civilians?
In Iraq -- 100,000.
In Afghanistan? Hard to find a number.

Five years in the United States.
We ask questions that matter to the power structure. We avoid asking the hard questions. If we so value democracy how do we protect it and ourselves at the same time? Is the USA Patriot Act of 2001 patriotic? Is wiretapping domestic telephone traffic patriotic? Does the Constitution matter? Is torture an act for which we wish to be remembered? Will the U.S. use of torture support and protect our troops? Are we a nation of laws?

Five years from now.
It's a blank slate. What will we write?