Remembering

I was just a kid when Kennedy was shot. I remember my mother waking me up to see Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. I remember when Reagan was shot, when Elvis died, and when John Lennon was shot. I also remember when John Denver's plane when down. But no memory is emblazoned so clearly in my mind as September 11, 2001.

I was on my way to the church office and needed to stop for a haircut (no comments from the peanut gallery!). I was listening to the radio when the first plane hit and assumed, I guess like most of America, that this was a very tragic accident. Then while sitting in the barber's chair another patron came in and announced the second plane had hit. I knew then that this was no accident, but who...and why? Then the plane hit the Pentagon, then another crashed into a field in Pennsylvania!?!

I went to the office and we hooked up a television to watch the coverage. I remember the whole office paralyzed, sitting watching helplessly, hopelessly as the towers fell. The first attack on America soil in...oh my...the devastation, the loss of life, the fear.

I will never forget that day. I will never forget the billows of smoke, the video of people leaping to their deaths from the towers, the towers themselves crumbling into piles of rubble, not knowing how many innocent victims were still in the buildings. Then the stories of heroism. The policemen and firemen who saved lives, many at the loss of their own.

I can remember the anger, the need for revenge...retribution. I'm still angry. I still want those who planned and carried out this cowardly terrorist attack on innocent people including women and children brought to justice...Old Testament justice.

No, I am not a lover of war. But I also know that war is sometimes necessary. Yes, it is expensive, not only financially but more importantly in the lives of the soldiers who are called to fight the wars.

I support our President, I support the soldiers who have gone, who are there, and who are going. Not only to Afghanistan, but to Iraq as well. I believe there were weapons of mass destruction there, but the American press gave Saddam Hussein plenty of time to move them. Even the Democrats who are discrediting our President for the invasion of Iraq knew they were there (at least they did while Clinton was president).

But I don't want to go off on a political tangent. I want Bin Laden and everyone else who had a part in 9-11. I remember. As such, I will continue to remember and will remember why our men and women are fighting this war and I will support them. I will never forget and hope you won't either.

A wise man once said, "those who choose to forget history are destined to repeat it."

May it never be so and may God bless America and protect her forces and her allies as they fight the hidden enemies of freedom and right.

Until we meet again...