Monday, September 11, 2006

God Bless America

September 11, 2001.
Everyone remembers what they were doing and where they were when they first heard the news. I never have the tv or radio on in the morning, so it was a typical Tuesday morning for me -- getting ready to run errands. As soon as I got into the car and headed to Oregon, IL to pick up the dog's tags, I heard the news on the radio. I listened in disbelief all the way there and all the way back. I stopped at the grocery store in Byron and saw the first tower collapse on the tv I didn't even know they had in there. I came right home and told Bill. I remember thinking when I first saw the tower collapse the line spoken by, I believe the Japanese admiral involved with the attack on Pearl Harbor: " we have awakened a sleeping giant."
I was proud of America in the weeks and months following -- all the flags that people started flying. We have always flown the flag -- every day. And where are the flags now?
Why are they making movies about the terrorist attacks? I don't want to see what some producer/director/writer "thinks" happened. I don't want to see some biased account of the events. We've already lived through it. I don't want to hear whose fault it was -- it was the terrorists' fault.
If all the information that flows into the intelligence agencies came to your computer, would you have figured out ahead of time what was going to happen? When you first heard or saw the attack, what did you do? Did you run into those buildings to help those people? Most everyone was in shock -- plain and simple. There is no blame to spread -- we must make our country safer ourselves -- we can't leave it for others to do for us. We must follow the rules at the airports, we must be aware of everything that goes on around us, we must be vigilant at all times, we must be aware that we are not loved by everyone -- there are those that hate us for whatever insane reason they have and the only thing we can do about it is be aware and be ready. And we must never forget.

1 comment :

Laura said...

Amen! to all you said.