Sunday, September 11, 2011

Living in a Changed America- Thoughts on 9-11

~erica

 I remember that morning- we woke up to the news of the 2nd plane hitting the Tower. It still seems surreal, we had gone to bed the night before listening to Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor and in that half waking state when the radio first came on I couldn't figure out why the plot had changed. It was horrifying to fully wake up and realize that it was all too real. This week it seems like every news story and everyone's focus has been on the 10th Anniversary of 9-11. Ryan watched 102 Minutes that Changed America and a Nova DVD, Why the Towers Fell with the boys. We didn't have TV at the time and only dial-up internet so we had the radio and still images and didn't have the TV news on all day so I'm not sure the boys were really aware of what had happened- they didn't see it. Nathan was 12 so I'm sure we talked to him about it but the other boys were 6, 5, 3, and not quite 2. They got some of it when Nathan went to Afghanistan for a year

I think everyone is now more fully aware that bad things can happen. Terrorism isn't just something that happens on the news "over there" somewhere but its something that can happen to people we know and love. But the terrorists weren't able to damage what makes us Americans: our optimism and our independence. We're thankful for the people who sacrifice their lives for our freedom.

Last night I was camping with our Boy Scout Troop. Most of the boys were only toddlers and don't remember when it happened. This morning we talked to them about what happened. I asked the older boys if any of them remembered being able to go out to the gate at the airport to meet a plane? No, but one of the 18 year olds could remember when you could take more than 4 oz. of fluid on a plan. (And some hadn't ever been on a plane- this is Lewis County afterall.)



These boys were only a year old on 9-11-01


Sights such as this flag ceremony yesterday bring me to tears. These boys are our future and they make me proud.


"Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God in the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder,...that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ' What do these stones mean to you?' These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever." Joshua 4: 5, 7

I listened to this interview with Tami Michaels and her husband on the radio Saturday morning. It's as close an eyewitness account as you can get. They were across the street in the Millenium Hilton.

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