Never Forget, Never Surrender...

September 11, 2001.  I was living in Anchorage, Alaska at the time.  A couple of hours after I started work that morning, I received a phone call from my boss who asked if I'd heard what was going on.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  She said that planes had just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.  I immediately began to try to tune in a news broadcast on the stereo system we used in our little restaurant.  The only thing I could find that was discussing the event was NPR, so I began to listen as the horrible morning unfolded.

Within a very short period of time, customers began to come into the restaurant, ashen-faced and in shock that our nation had been attacked in such a brutal and senseless way.  Even though we were thousands of miles from Ground Zero, our sense of security had been shattered.

I arrived at home around four in the afternoon and, for the first time, saw television footage of the attacks and the aftermath.  I wept openly at the idea of the countless people who had obviously lost their lives and the countless more who had lost loved ones.  I watched the shock on the faces of the dust-covered people as they staggered through the streets.  There was no differentiation of ethnicity, no rich, no poor, just...grey.  Everyone was covered in grey.  We were made one in our grief, in our loss, in our shock.  Unified.

As should be expected, it wouldn't take long for people to politicize the event.  Fingers began pointing, talking heads began shouting at one another.  However, in the brief quiet of the aftermath, we were one.

We were a nation with the wind knocked out of us.  From 3,370 miles away, Alaskans felt unity with our countrymen in New York City.

A bold attack in the most visible of places:  New York City, the Pentagon, and a failed attempt at an attack on Washington, DC, had sucked the oxygen from the atmosphere, leaving us all gasping for breath.  Immediately, people all over the country started assessing the strategic importance of potential targets in their neighborhoods.  Would terrorists strike the Pipeline in Alaska?  How about the bridges in the San Francisco area?  No one knew, and we all held our collective breath for the next blow.

Over time, the United States has shifted her view from the tragedy of September 11.  We've lost our national anger.  We debate about the trivial and ignore the deadly.

It's been eleven years.  Our national memory--peppered with entertainment, vice, and silly politics--has become foggy.  We shrug our shoulders.  We forget the names of those who were lost and those who lost fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters.

My family and I will not forget.  We will continue to pray for those families.  We will continue to pray for and support our military.  We will continue to thank fire fighters, police officers, soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and guardsmen for their service to the citizenry.  We will continue to be grateful that we live in the greatest nation on earth.  We will continue to thank God for our freedom, for it is He Who provides it.  We will continue to pray for our national leaders, whether we agree with them or not.

This country is worth fighting for.  It's worth dying for.  It's worth losing friends for.  Many get annoyed with the political nature of many of my posts.  I've given that a lot of thought.  While I do not wish that anyone would be displeased with me, this nation is worth every possible effort to save.  I cannot stand by silently and watch people tear her down.  I will not.  It was worth my father fighting for in Vietnam, and it's still worth fighting for.

So, if you're bored with the political nature of my posts, I do not apologize.  Perhaps you could take the time to research and study the facts.  Then, perhaps, you'll find within you the passion to spread the word to others who might be as uninformed as you once were.

Don't let the victims of September 11 slip into history unnoticed.  Keep the subject alive.  Look at the photos.  Watch the videos.  Educate yourself and your children on the facts.  This nation is worth that effort. Too many people have shed their blood for us to simply sit back and remain intellectually fat and lazy.  Wake up, America!