I Will Never Forget

I wasn't going to write a "tribute" to the 9/11 tragedy - not because I don't care, but because I find it all so draining. Draining because of the constant coverage...the videos of that second plane crashing through the tower...the videos of the enormous buildings tumbling to the ground...the mourners...the firemen...the rubble.

I won't ever forget the day it happened. I don't really think any American will. But I was thinking today, after reading blog after blog paying tribute to the victims, of the morning it happened. I saw the plane hit the second tower. I saw the horror on the faces of the GMA anchors. I couldn't believe it. But it didn't really sink in.

Then I went to work. I was so busy - rushing around from room to room, organizing workers and children. Then I heard one of the ladies say that the first tower had fallen. I said "Oh my gosh" with this look of fake sadness. It still didn't sink in...then I went on with what I was doing.

Then it hit me.

It fell.

Those people didn't have time to get out.

They are dead.

Thousands of people just died.

This doesn't happen to us in America.

Now don't get me wrong here - I have GREAT respect for the men and women that gave their lives on September 11, 2001 - but, here is what I get out of 9/11. I don't want to dwell only on the 2,973 people who died in those towers and the others "still missing".

I also want to remember the thousands of people around the world that lose their lives every.single.day. to some terrorist act.

I want to remember the 365 children at the school in Belsan Russia,
the 52 victims of the London bombings,
the 191 victims of the Madrid train bombings,
the thousands of victims of suicide bombers in Iraq & Afghanistan,
the civilian casualties of the violence in Iran,
the thousands of victims of genocide in Darfur.

I want to remember their families, their children, their spouses.

I hope that I always remember that I live in a free country. A country with more liberties than the majority of the rest of the world.

We are lucky. We have rights. We have democracy. And our military fights for that freedom every. day.

And while 9/11 was certainly a tragedy...while it is heart-wrenching...while it is frightening...it was one day. One day in an otherwise protected existence. One day of terror in America - when everyday is full of terror in so many other places.

This may not always be the case in my country...I may not always be relatively safe...I may not always have freedom...but I do now. And that...I will never forget.