Never Forget

In Remembrance

Picture found on CZBrats

My mom woke us that morning with the panicked message that the Pentagon was on fire and someone had crashed two planes into the World Trade Center. We tumbled out of bed to face a changed world. Nick and I were 22 and 23, brand new parents of a 5 month old baby girl, and we asked ourselves over and over again what we had done by bringing a child into this world.

We watched the screen of our tiny 13 inch TV as the second tower fell, as fellow Americans leapt to a less horrifying death than the flames that reached for them, as every face that flashed across the screen howled in rage and fear. We huddled together, our tiny family suddenly both connected to every other citizen and yet utterly alone.

I remember the unrealized horror of the empty sky above us, the panic inducing roar of distant vehicles that somehow sounded like murderous planes.

That day my foundation was shaken to a level I had never before fathomed. Today I can still feel the reverberations. I'm politely asking everyone to please keep politics off of here, but I want us to all stop and remember.