story5079.xml

story5079.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

Like every other morning, on my way to work I was listening to the "Bob and Sheri" show on my car radio. They were into their chat room portion of the show where people call in and discuss all different kinds of topics. Not suprisingly, I don't remember the topic on September 11th 2001. What I do remember is Bob cutting into someone's phone call to let the listeners know that he'd just received word that an airplane had just crashed into one of the WTC towers. I remember thinking, "oh my god, that's horrible" and looking at my clock and trying to figure out what the time change, if any, would apply to New York and wondering if people had started to show up for work there.

Bob told us that he'd give us more information as he got it and I continued on to work. When I got to work, I immediately turned on the radio to see if anymore information had been attained, what I heard then sent such a bolt of fear through me that I had to sit down and take some deep breaths. Another plane had crashed into the OTHER WTC tower. I immediately knew America was under attack.

Something no person of my generation had ever experienced (I'm 32). We weren't alive during Pearl Harbor and the closest we'd ever come to real time war was watching CNN or of course movies. The one thought I kept having was "This is America, they can't do that to us". Not because I think America is above being a victim but because it was such a foreign concept that someone had attacked us here, on our own soil. America. How was it possible? Things like this just do not happen in America.

I was wrong and like the rest of the country, I had a wake up call.

One of our most basic and taken for granted feelings was obliterated. WE NO LONGER FELT SAFE. Here in America, fear was now a national feeling. We now had something in common with those countries we see on the news all the time. Those news stories we watched with detachment. Bombings, war, terrorist attacks, fear. Those stories we now understand much more deeply. Americans now have an empathy with other innocent victims who through no fault of their own, look over their shoulders much more often. America as a country and as individuals had been changed forever.

Today, the one year anniversary of America's loss of so many innocent people, marks each and every one of us with the residue of terror, yet it also marks us with the knowledge that this nation is what it proclaims to be. Home of the FREE and the Brave, the greatest nation on earth. The nation that took such a horrible, unexpected hit yet pulled together so tightly that the normal reasons for division were forgotten - race, sex, economic background, religion. On this day, once again we are all just Americans. The most blessed nation on the planet.

My hope is that this closeness and tolerance will continue to stay strong in our country. That individually we can look at our blessings and do everything in our power to give to and help others not so fortunate. That we can realise that our diversity is what makes us such a great nation and that those ever present "self evident" truths are just as true today as when they were written. All men are created equal. Let's start living our lives believing it.

September 11, 2001...Never Forget...Let Freedom Continue to Ring and GOD BLESS AMERICA