Friday, September 11, 2009

My Thoughts on 9/11

I can barely bring myself to even think about today. It was/is so overpoweringly sad and terrifying. Part of me shattered that day and will never be put back together.

If I dwell on it I am lost in sadness and lack of understanding. If I put it out of mind I feel guilty. I wonder how long it took for Americans to 'get past' Pearl Harbor?

Images, other than the planes, that I can't get out of my mind are the people in the Middle East dancing in celebration of our loss. I still work hard to forgive and forget that image.

The other is of President Bush sitting with school children and receiving the news. I remember thinking about the burden of the country that had just been placed on his shoulders.

I had never been more proud, or more scared to be an American.

Another image I will never forget is going out in my yard mid-afternoon. It was a beautiful, sunny day and there was not a single plane in the sky. I sat in the grass looking at the empty sky and cried while I waited for my daughter to get home from school so I could talk to her about what happened. We live just a few miles from the airport and can always see mulitiple trails of jets zig-zagging across the sky. I pray I will never see a sky empty of jets again.

I still don't know why people across the globe hate me and my child without ever having met us. It took me years before I was comfortable flying again, and I still get nervous.

But - I welcome the messages of peace and friendship that President Obama has sent out in his speeches when he goes abroad. It needed to happen and I'm proud of him for trying to send a new message to the world. I know in my heart that 9/11 was the act of insane extremists. I feel we'll change the minds of those who hate us through acts of love, acceptance and understanding and not acts of war (although I'm all for defending ourselves and catching the creeps who continue this).

I support President Bush's descisions to fight this war that was started by others and I am SO proud of the soldiers who protect me every day. I do hope they all can come home some day soon.

I hope we continue to build hospitals and schools etc. I also hope our military hospital ships continue to go around the world where they are needed. Somehow the world needs to see just how good Americans really are.

I wish we could stop this bickering and hatred going on amongst ourselves. We so need to show a different side to the world.

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