A decade.A decade is how long it has been since America was viciously attacked by terrorists. It doesn't seem like it has been that long, to me at least, until I think about where I was at on 9/11 (I think most people will always remember where they were that day). I was a Sophomore in High School, taking the ISTEP tests that morning. Now, I'm going to admit something here: I had no freaking idea what the Twin Towers were at that point. I remember Mrs. Waywood (who worked at the school and is now, coincidentally, Hebron's Town Clerk) coming over the intercom and announcing the attack (I wonder, sometimes, also, what those scores would have been if the school had waited until we were done to announce it to us all. Though then a lot of people would have been pretty ticked that they had waited, I suppose).
The next class, after we were done testing, we were finally able to SEE the destruction; it was unreal. I remember all of us standing there, watching people run away from the cloud of dust and debris. People were crying and screaming in the street. It was absolutely horrid, and that day will probably easily be the worst day in America within my lifetime.
There was a lot that happened when I was a Sophomore in High School...and right now I couldn't tell you a damn thing. That's what happens with big, major events like 9/11; it burns into our memories. "We will never forget" is more than just an inspirational, or patriotic saying: it's a simple fact. Nobody will forget that day. It would be like asking me to forget the day either of my children were born, or the day I got married...it's not only that I wouldn't want to, it's that I would be physically unable to.
Today is about remembering. And recognizing that America was changed that day. It isn't about R's and D's after ones name, we can continue to argue and fret and fight tomorrow. For one day, just one day, we are all bound together in commonality...in remembrance. There were all kinds of ceremonies in different areas today throughout NW Indiana, and throughout the country, and running for Town Council it probably wasn't politically smart of me to not go to any. But I chose to remember today in my own way; I spent the day with my family, played with my children, and waited for the Cowboys to play. Because that is the biggest slap in the face to those that wanted to tear our country down. A decade later, and though our innocence as a country has been lost, we can still live here without fear.
So today, spend some time with your family, and say a little prayer for those that lost their lives. And remember.
