I remember that day. Sleeping after a third shift feeding grinders in the paper mill. Home by 7am swallow 4 ibuprofen and into bed, same old routine. I awoke to my then wife screaming 'we're under attack! Someone flew a plane into a skyscraper!' I sat up in bed as she turned on the television. What I saw horrified me. The first tower burning and a gaping hole in it's side. Smoke and flames, people scurrying around trying help, get help or just get away. Then the video of the plane turning into the tower. I was awake for the second plane strike. Thoughts of war welled up in my head. I thought of my new child and the world I had brought her forth to. Then people falling...the total loss of hope that these people had to endure in order to make the resolution to jump must have shook them to the core. What terror they must have felt to find the strength to jump. I hadn't realized it, but I had been crying. Never before and never since had a foreign invader orchestrated such an attack on our soil.
That day will forever live in our hearts. Not only for the people that died on that horrible day, but for the soldiers that have since been lost in the war on terrorism. We remember the dead, but forget that while people were running from the chaos, many were running to it. Firefighters, police and rescue. Army, Navy, Airforce and Marines. The numbers of these valiant men and woman surpass the losses of that day. These are the men and women that don't think about their personal sacrifice to put themselves in harms way to protect us. They deserve our respect and admiration. They hold themselves to a standard that many of us don't understand or recognize. For them I am grateful as should we all be.
The day Usama Bin Laden was killed I didn't have a victorious feeling. The feeling I had was one of concern. That this man had the help from others to live in relative comfort not 800 yards from a Pakistani military installation akin to our own West Point. In a country that we send Billions of dollars in aid to. That others were and still are willing to pick up where he left off. Many felt as if we had won. I feel that we have only just begun. We need to build respect in the world so that this tragedy never happens again. On our soil or any friend of the U.S.A's soil.
I thank the men and woman of the Armed Services, Fire, Rescue and Police. Your sacrifices are forever in our hearts and minds.
