9/11 Ten Years Later- Let Us Pledge to Not Forget
I have been thinking about writing this post for a year now. Thinking and dreading it. I was not in New York, DC or Shanksville PA that day, nor did I have a personal connection with anyone who perished , And yet I knew that I would need to write something.. not for points, not for Google or SEO... but for me. I needed to allow my mind and feelings to go where it did not want to go.
The first line in my journal that day was "A day that started out normally, turned out to be one we will always remember." Like many others, I had friends stranded in cities across the country because flights had been halted and all planes ordered to land. My husband was supposed to have flown to Houston this day, but the trip had been rescheduled. I could not take my eyes from the news, and in fact stayed up watching until I could no longer remain awake. Our world... everyone's...was forever changed.
For days,I had a permanent lump in my throat . I thought of what might have been. The senselessness of the acts were overwhelming... the heroic stories I heard caused my heart to swell with pride ... and the tragic tales of all of the people whose lives were cut short brought me to a state that my husband had never seen. I am the positive one in my family... I am the one with the smile on my face... but it was gone those first few days.
Later when we all learned that many of the hijackers had lived here in Delray Beach and 
our surrounding areas while preparing for that fateful day, anger set in. One of the apartment complexes where they lived was only 5 minutes from my home. They used our public library and walked along Atlantic Avenue and ate in our restaurants.
I went through the Kubler-Ross 5 Stages of Grief all in 5 days, except the 5th step...Acceptance...that was the hardest to take.
Yet, for this day and the deaths of those who perished to have any meaning whatsoever, we must never forget September 11, 2001. Not just what happened or where we were, but remember how we came together as a country... came together as proud Americans.
I remember reading of the shoe store owner who opened his store and handed out tennis shoes to the ladies who were trying to make their way from the area on foot and had only high heels to walk in.
I remember being uplifted with a feeling of pride when I saw members of Congress on the steps at Capitol Hill spontaneously begin to sing "God Bless America".
And I will never forget the scene of citizens running from the wall of eerie smoke as the Towers came down. There was not the chaotic panic you see in movies... no...people ran but they ran together.
We came together as a nation.
Ten years later we are slowly recovering from an unheard of economic crisis.... divided by an unwillingness to compromise by many and crippled by a political tug-of-war in which common sense has lost all meaning.
So on this, the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11, I ask you to think about those horrific days but also remember how we came together as a Nation of ONE.
Life is good!
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