9/11

Dear Reader,

I was trying to write a poem to capture what I was feeling when I heard about the destruction wrought down upon New York and the Pentagon. Then I was going to tell how the nation was responding to the attack by the terrorists. But I could not think of the words to say it. So instead, I will write about what I was doing at the time of the attack.

I was sitting in front of my family television playing with my Lego blocks. I was ignoring the television because nothing interesting was going on. Then I notice that the news had broken through the normal programming and was playing recordings made from the attacks. I remember seeing two smoking buildings. They were grey and stood out against the horizon. At the time I didn’t realize what they were or what they symbolized. I remember my mother coming into the room with tears in her eyes.

I think that’s when I realized that something was wrong. Through out the day I remember seeing clips after clips of the plans crashing into it all day long and about how the civilians of Flight 93 fought control over the craft. I was eleven at the time of the attack and I remember growing up a little that day.

After that, the War began. I remember the sides bickering back and forth about the pros and cons of the War. I remember how one side would tear apart the other side’s choices and the later returned the favor to the former. Then the whole business about whether or not a Mosque was being built on/near Ground Zero.

Now a decade has past and our thoughts are turning back to that Time.

My school had a memorial service a few days ago in honor of all First Responders and to remember those who killed. Since that service, I have been thinking about my friends and their relatives who are part of the military or emergency forces of America and how often they put their lives on the line to protect us. And how little we seem to care for them. All I seem to hear on the various media outlets is how obnoxious they can be or the ‘scandals’ some are caught in. We never seem to truly appreciate how many made great sacrifices to give us the right to treat them with disrespect.

So today go and say thank you to one who has committed his or her life to a life of service in your defense. Remember also today those who killed this day ten years ago.

– Poetria