Remembering 9/11

I was at work when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. I heard about the first plane on the way to work and I remember saying to my mother that some idiot in a Cessna got lost. She was on her way to a doctor's appointment and was watching TV when the second plane hit. We had family in the New York area but fortunately none of them were involved. Not so for my friend and coworker Maureen. The son of one of her friends worked at Canter Fitzgerald; that company lost everyone in the towers.

Today we are watching the shows on The History Channel about that day. Even after 7 years in some ways it still seems surreal. I still feel a great sense of sadness and outrage. Our son will never have the opportunity to grow up in a world where terrorism didn't touch his country like all of us did. Remember when we were kids and we thought our country was invulnerable and terrorism was some vague thing that happened in other countries and the worse we heard about was a hijacked plane? Jimmy will never live with that blissful innocence and my heart aches for him. Anyone who says kids today have it easier are full of it. They may have more technology but that sense of innocence and faith in our country are gone. Kids are forced to grow up too fast by acts like the WTC attacks and our society in general.

So today we will remember everyone who was there, both the survivors and the victims. We will be thankful for the heroes who put their lives in danger to try to rescue others. And we will be thankful that our country still stands and pray that in this election year where we are hearing all the negative political ads that we as a people and nation will somehow find a way to push past all the divisivness and once again find the unity we knew immediately following the attacks. God bless America and God bless us!