9/11 is my birthday. While I post a great deal of ditzy things on this blog, some about things that grow on milk left under carseats and getting kicked out of moms groups, my patriotism is something I take very seriously.
There is great discussion this morning about remembering where you were, what you were doing on the morning of 9/11, aside from my run to buy gas as we watched the prices soar here is what I remember:
I remember waking up to beautiful fall weather and clear blue skies, a perfect birthday. I also remember sitting on my mother’s bed hands clasped to my face watching that second plane fly into the World Trade Center, thinking how could this happen to in my country? My America, where I watched families of troops that fought to protect our most basic human right, FREEDOM, time little yellow ribbons on trees and fences while they waited during Desert Storm? My America, where I was raised to see the sacrifices that our ancestors made and a thousand people after that to make our United States free for everyone. My America, great and proud and born out of geniuses and men who believed that we should have the right to grow and prosper and do for ourselves without the hand of the government but instead with the hand of whichever god you believe in.
I remember stepping outside the door at work and watching fighter jets streak overhead and Air Force One as it landed at Offutt Air Force Base. In my lifetime, I had never seen a war brought upon our soil, and rest assured it was a war long before that beautiful September day. On another beautiful morning, in 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and our country went to war against an enemy who held no respect for human life and destroyed millions before being brought down.
On 9/11 terrorists who also held no regard for life killed 2993 people because they knew that dictators can be overthrown, freedom cannot. On that day we were reminded that the cause of freedom is a cause to be advanced around the world, terrorists and dictators should not be allowed to rob their own countrymen of their right as human beings for life and liberty.
With the coming of my birthday each year I am filled that same defiance and pride in our great nation as I was that day. I am reminded that freedom is a cause that was hard won and should be protected at all costs. 8 years later, I say to people who would have us turn leave our conflicts around the world that without freedom the world can never have peace. God Bless America and keep her safe from those who would do her harm.
“Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.’ -George Bush September 11 Address to the nation
“We’ve seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers in English, Hebrew and Arabic. We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of strangers their own. My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of union, and it is strong.” - September 11 Address to the Nation
“America will never forget the sounds of our national anthem playing at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of Paris and at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul, or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo. We will not forget moments of silence and days of mourning in Australia and Africa and Latin America. Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own. Dozens of Pakistanis, more than 130 Israelis, more than 250 citizens of India, men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan, and hundreds of British citizens.” -George Bush September 11 Address to the nation
“America is successful because of the hard work and creativity and enterprise of our people. These were the true strengths of our economy before September 11, and they are our strengths today.” -George Bush September 11 Address to the nation
“Each of us will remember what happened that day and to whom it happened. We will remember the moment the news came, where we were and what we were doing. Some will remember an image of a fire or story or rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever.” -George Bush September 11 Address to the nation
“On Tuesday, our country was attacked with deliberate and massive cruelty. We have seen the images of fire and ashes and bent steel. Now come the names, the list of casualties we are only beginning to read. They are the names of men and women who began their day at a desk or in an airport, busy with life. They are the names of people who faced death and in their last moments called home to say, be brave and I love you.
They are the names of passengers who defied their murderers and prevented the murder of others on the ground. They are the names of men and women who wore the uniform of the United States and died at their posts. They are the names of rescuers — the ones whom death found running up the stairs and into the fires to help others. We will read all these names. We will linger over them and learn their stories, and many Americans will weep. To the children and parents and spouses and families and friends of the lost, we offer the deepest sympathy of the nation. And I assure you, you are not alone.
Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history, but our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil. War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder.
This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others; it will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing.” – President George W Bush, National Cathedral Speech
