LEST WE FORGET...

This 9/11 account to follow, was written by sister Mary......


It was a Tuesday morning in September,  September 11, 2001 to be exact.  Nothing unusual, I was getting ready to go to work and Maude my 14 year old daughter was getting ready for Seminary.  I was watching the news and what appeared to be a movie trailer came on the screen.  A jet flew into one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York.  I thought it was a spectacular sight until I realized that it was on the news and a terrible accident had just occurred.  Maude came in to watch for a minute before we left home.  On the way to the Church we listened in disbelief as another plane flew into the second tower.  And we then knew it was no accident we were under attack.  It was hard to leave her there and go on to work.  I did however, I have learned doing the next indicated thing in times like this will keep some sort of order in my brain...  Little did I know life as we know it would never be the same and the horror was just beginning.  Before the day was over we would find ourselves victims of unspeakable acts of terrorism and see heroes appearing before our eyes.  The Pentagon being hit next and the heroes on Flight 93 thwarting the efforts of the terrorists bent on flying  into the Capitol building in Washington DC.

Do you ever find yourself staring at something so disgusting that you can't bear to look and yet you can't tear your eyes away.  That was the case for me.  I could not leave the television.  The order to clear the airspace over our entire country brought with it a silence that was deafening.  The immediate thought that came to me was to protect my family and home.  To hunker down and try to make sense out of what had just happened.

We listened to our President, George W. Bush with rapt attention. Standing at ground zero, reassuring us with  words, that these thugs(I think he called them evildoers) would not go unpunished.  Sweet balm for a moment.  Making me grateful to live in a country that would not ignore or let these war crimes go unnoticed.

I want to tell you what effect 9-11 had on my girl.  She immediately became a huge fan of the President.  She listened to his every word.  Read about he and Mrs. Bush.  Related to me what he said, believed in, and why he was right.  I was not the only one she shared her new found passion with.  Her friends I am sure winced whenever politics came up.  She being my girl was so sure of what she believed in felt sorry for her pals that didn't quite embrace her opinions.
On the other hand my little great nephew was 2 1/2 years old.  He would get himself up in the night to turn on the news and watch.  He was mesmerized by the pictures of the planes flying into the towers.  It was all he talked about for weeks "why did the bad men do this?"he would ask.  His doctor even saw him and tried to reassure him that this happened on the other side of the world.  And would never happen here.  He, in his little voice told the doctor that planes could fly all the way here and do it again.  He is 12 now and has never flown.  In fact doesn't even like to go to the airport.  Sometimes horrifying sights singe their way into our brains and never ever fade.  That might be the case for him.
These are just two little insights into what happened personally to two young people thousands of miles away from these acts of war.  I can only imagine the stories that every one of us might tell.

I know for myself that those people I know that have visited Ground Zero and Shanksville, Pennsylvania where Flight 93 crashed were moved beyond words.  That for so many it is life changing.
I was raised in the 50's and 60's in a country where these things don't happen to us.  Where we have had the luxury of fighting wars on foreign soil.  Keeping the boundaries of the United States clearly off limits.  Suddenly in just a moment that personal sense of peace and comfort was snatched away, never to return

Let us not forget, the lives lost, the heroes made, the families left behind.

A lesson forgotten is a lesson destined to be repeated.

Cheers to the men and women who became brave hero's...  Somewhere in another time on September 11, 2001.

Very wise words from a very wise woman...Debbie



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