binding together

It has been quite a while since I've written.
I am not likely tonight to have anything creative to say. I probably wont even have any vast insights. In short; this wont be any sort of a "deep thoughts" type of post.

On September 11Th, 2001. 2996 people lost their lives. Of those people, 1616 death certificates were issued without so much as a bone fragment to identify the dead.

Although it has been 9 years, I remember the day as if it was much more recent. I am certain that this rings true for all of you as well. The interesting thing about reflecting on the day is that exact fact. We all experienced more or less the same thing. The same feelings. The same emotions. To anybody who lost a loved one, or was near the scene that day, of course i realize the vast difference between us. I'm talking about the rest of us.

Tonight, watching the slew of documentaries about the events, I was struck by that similarity. I was struck particularly by the change in attitudes through the course of the day. I watched people go through shock, fear, and finally anger. And i remember going through the same gamut of emotions myself.

Remember when you first heard about it? Nobody knew exactly what had happened. Was it an accident? was it terrorism? how many people worked there? How did this happen? What is going to happen now?

We saw people jumping.

And then the second plane. Oh my god. this is real. this is not an accident. We started hearing something about other planes. about the pentagon. We heard rumors about threats of continuing attacks every 30 minutes. In our area, the focus turned to us as likely targets due to our proximity to nuclear power plants.

We were glued to the TV. The radio. The telephone. Whatever source of information that we had.

The first tower fell. Disbelief. "It just disappeared" "is it really gone?" Who did this? Look at those people running away from the cloud. Remember how you felt?

You know the rest of the story. You Lived It.

But here is the great thing about this country. We love our fellow citizens. We care that this happened. And that started to show right away. People got mad. You started to see the fight in the dog.

So its been 9 years. Think about the way that we have changed. As a country. As a people. As a world. Have you noticed the changes in even some of the basic day to day things in your life? We have invented new words. We have noticed faults in this fairly young country of ours. When, ever, before this, did any of us think about the aging infrastructure of our country? When did we ever think about airport security as anything other than a nuisance?

When did we ever notice how strong our biases are? I believe that we all have a much stronger feeling of what our country is to us than we have had as a country since we became one. I don't believe that there has been a time, wartime excluded, that we as a people have bound ourselves together as we have since this. That said, I do believe that this event has been the one of the least significance, and has had the most importance, if that is possible, of any of these events.

Think of the death toll of any war that we have been in. WW1. WW2. Korea, Vietnam. You know the list. This one day. This one series of attacks. 9/11/1 made a bigger dent in my opinion than any of them. Tied us together as Americans more strongly. Made us more United. 2996 people.

Why? Because it happened HERE. We had never been attacked on any grand scale on our own soil before. Most of our country had never been combat veterans. Because we had never been, we had absolutely no understanding what its like in a war zone. Every major war has happened somewhere else. Somewhere far away. In other words, NOT HERE.

There is not likely to be a Combat Veteran who will give you many details about being "there." Wherever "there" is. They don't talk about it. It is suddenly, in the light of what we all saw that day, not very hard to understand why. When you have been in a war zone, and you have seen what those heroes have seen, there is not much to say. And the ties that bind those guys together speak for themselves.

I spoke this week to a gentleman named "Bob." He was headed out for a winter trip immediately after we got done with his vehicle. The man told me that he needed to be in some part of California by the end of next week. When I asked why, he told me that he had some friends out there, six of them, they were getting together for his 81st birthday. He hadn't seen some of them in ten years.

I can tell you that if I haven't seen somebody in 10 years, I am not likely to drive a few thousand miles, especially at 80 years old to do so. Except. They had been in the war together. How many time have you heard the phrase "you put your life in this guy's hands" from a veteran? While Hollywood has maybe been guilty of using the phrase to the point of vanity, to a veteran it really means something.

And what you find out as you look around is that it is not just veterans. There is a country song out right now that expresses the same sentiment about high school football. You will not find a Police Officer or a Firefighter who doesn't know what it feels like.

But the rest of us. The rest of us never knew. Because of these guys we lived at that time in a world that was safe. Was indestructible. Was impermeable. We were Americans, we were a superpower. Remember Operation Desert Storm? Remember the way we puffed our chests out at the sight of our troops running bulldozers and tanks across the desert? The power we all felt at our almost uncontested Dominance of the world? We were untouchable. We knew we were. Think of your own lifestyle in the late 80's and early 90's. Remember No Fear clothes? Exactly my point.

Have you really felt that way since this happened? This is the impact that I believe this event has had on our nation. We are the biggest, most wealthy, most powerful, most benevolent, and most diplomatic country on the planet.

But if you never understood what it was to be part of this nation, remember this. Remember that we lost a few average airplanes, and 2996 people from this planet, and you feel the way that you feel every time that you think about it. Remember how small those numbers really are. Remember the enormous impact that they have had. Because that is the way that we declare victory over these hateful people. By remembering.

I don't know about you, but i am thankful every day for those who protect us. I am thankful for our troops. for our civil servants. All of them. I Am Thankful for those men and women who have traveled to other places and seen war firsthand for me. and for you.

And mostly, I am thankful for the spirit of this country. For the culture of this people. And for our gifts of integrity, courage, and strength.

May we never forget how important this day has been, and how much it has strengthened us.