Remembering 9/11

Here I sit, trying to think of a clever or thought-provoking message out of respect for 9/11 and I fear I'm still coming up blank. But I remember that day so clearly. I'd just gotten my oldest son out the door to catch the bus for junior high school and was in the process of getting my elementary children ready for school while carrying a baby around on my hip. My husband called me, sounding rather shaken, and told me to turn on the TV. An odd request, to be sure. I stood there watching live TV, my baby on my hip, staring in utter disbelief as black smoke billowed out of one of the World Trade Center Towers. Then, as I watched, a second plane flew in really low. My heart began racing as a tremor of intuition ran through me. I watched, aghast, as that second plane flew directly into the tower and exploded.

All my instincts screamed that this was no accident. "We're under attack," I whispered in horror.

My children stilled around me. I called my husband and told him a second plane had just crashed into the other tower.

He's already heard it on the radio. He said, "We're at war. Keep the children home from school."

One child had already left, so I piled the remaining four into the car, drove to the school, got my oldest son, and brought him home.

The rest of the day passed in tears and prayer as I cared for my children while keeping an eye on the TV. I steeled myself for the warning to evacuate the city because an air raid was headed our way.

Then, when the airplanes were all grounded, an eerie silence filled the air in the space over our house where airplanes normally flew their traffic patterns. Apprehension filled me at the thought that we were at war.

The war didn’t unfold as I’d feared, but it did happen in its own way. Even though no one I knew personally was directly involved in the initial terrorist attack, that day changed me. A renewed sense of patriotism swept over me as it did the rest of the country. I was fiercely determined to protect my children, family, friends, neighbors. For a while, we, as a country, were united. For a while, we were proud to be Americans, determined to fight for our rights and our liberty and our lives. For a while, we all turned to whatever god we worshipped and remembered him in prayer.

Unfortunately, as the threat passed, so did that spirit that united us. As we debate the wisdom of a government health care system and argue over the motives of our leaders, I hope today, of all days, we will pause and remember that we are all Americans, trying to do the best we can according to the dictates of our own conscience. I hope we will remember that we are all parents, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors. I hope we will remember we are all children of God.