This Day Is Forever

I can remember that morning in my head so clearly, that it hardly seems like it could have been 8 years ago already. When people ask me when we moved to Troy, I answer "Labor Day weekend, 2001"... but in my brain, it's followed with, "right before 9-11". It was the first defining thing that happened after we bought out house, and I've forgotten the entire 2 weeks before that in my memory. I know they involved unpacking.. and Corey starting a new school.. but I don't have those memories. I remember buying my house, and I remember standing there in the family room after K called, with Ashley who's 4 year old eyes were huge.. watching those towers burn and crash to the ground. As the Pentagon burned, and those brave people in PA took that plane down in a lonely field.


We were a nation full of fear. A nation in shock and disbelief. A nation full of horror and sadness and repulsion that someone would dare do this in our back yard. A nation full of grief and in mourning. A nation that pulled together in prayer and support for the families who lost loved ones. A nation that stood together in a way never before seen. A nation full of hope that America would rise up and overcome this. That in the end, we would prevail over tragedy and hold those responsible accountable for their actions. A nation united.

Today, in 2009... what strikes me most, is how we've seem to forgotten. You don't hear about it much anymore. No one talks about the families and how they are doing. No one mentions the memorial that is supposed to be being built in NYC. No one talks about how our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq are all tied back to this one awful day. We teach student at school who weren't even alive yet, and have no idea the sacrifices that were made to keep their lives safe. No one has told them, and that just breaks my heart.

We need to honor those lives who were lost that day. We need to support our military for continuing in their mission to keep our soil safe. We need to persevere in our commitment to hold those persons responsible accountable for their actions. We need to remember. We must never forget.