Five Years Ago ...

Five years ago, I awoke, made a pot of coffee, and hopped online. I was taking a free Writing Class and went to the School Bulletin Board to see what folks were doing, and intended to check the classrooms to see what exercises had been posted and what responses my own lesson had garnered. But the comments I began to read on the Bulletin Board were confusing.

My first action was to simply scroll down to the beginning of the unread posts. And I began to read requests for information from my fellow students to other students. "Are you okay?" "Where do you live?" "Do you know anybody in New York?" "Has anyone heard from ....?"

I scrolled up and found an "updating" post. It related the story from the start to the present and I was transfixed. What the hell had happened, I wondered? I read the headers until I found some of my own classmates' postings. The World Trade Center had been hit by an airliner. An accident?

I turned and flipped on the television and switched to ABC (I preferred Peter Jennings to the other Anchors), then watched. This was not an accident! Clear, blue skies meant there was no way an airliner blundered into the giant tower. As I watched I saw what had happened only moments before. An airliner passed behind the smoking building and slammed into the second. Flames and debris spewed from the building.

I turned and began checking the updated postings and began seeking answers myself. I connected with a few of my fellow students and we began looking for others, updating each other as we posted. My fellow students came from around the US, and also from around the world.

Postings of concern appeared from India, Singapore, Ireland, New Zealand, Great Britain, Germany. Voices seeking their friends, asking what was going on? Letting us know what was happening in their own countries, their own states. Voices offering support and solace.

News of the Pentagon attack soon appeared, then the unbelievable news of the Airliner that had crashed into a Pennsylvania field. And now the posts were taking on the emotions of anger, and also of resolve.

Now, five years later, the resolve of all too many Americans has waned. The anger wavers and refocuses onto the American President, the supporters of the War On Terror, the Republicans, the Conservatives, the Christians and the Jews. What had been a unifying horror has become a dimly remembered moment. A moment that has become a tool for the politicos, on both sides, to brand their opponents while serving neither the people of America, nor the Parties they represent.

After the Second World War, many oddballs excused the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy as an excusable action. Why? Because we, America, made them do it. Never mind the rape of Nanking, the subjugation of Asian peoples. No, because the USA was alarmed by the militarism of Japan, and worked against them on the economic and political field, these fools were content to claim we - America - had it coming!

And just so with the dastardly and cowardly attacks of 9/11. We had it coming. Were these the voices of the usual suspect thinkers of Europe, Asia, and such, who would care? We have never cared what the Old World thought of us. But many of these 'thinkers' are our own fellow Americans. They run the gamut from some of your work-a-day neighbors, to College Professors, elected officials, religious leaders.

Five years later, and we should all be wondering what the hell happened? What actually happened that warped so many supposedly free minds into the hate-filled myrmidons of today?

2,996 innocent people died on 9/11. They died in their places of work, they died on airliners, They died in unimaginable fear, agony, hope. So many people acted with intrepid bravery, risking their own lives for others, knowing there was a good chance they would not survive. Some brave men died in the WTC because they chose to stay and comfort folks who could no longer make it down the stairwells, could no longer walk, could no longer see hope. Those brave men stayed, knowing full well they were now going to die.

Five years after the 9/11 attacks, do we honor the dead? Do we honor the promise of those who gave their all for their fellow Americans? Five years later have we succumbed to fatigue and hopelessness? Are we ready to surrender to the same rabid filth that took 2,996 lives for the simple fault of living in a free land?

I pray to GOD that we are better than that, stronger than that. I pray to GOD for our success in the fight against the terrorists and their supporters. May GOD watch over each life lost to us on that day, and may HE watch over us all our live-long days.

GOD Bless America!

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Angel, at Woman Honor Thyself looks at “This DaY” …Sept. 11, and says, "Sweet friends.
I will be at Ground Zero on “this day”.
I promise to visit all your enlightening, heart warming sites upon my return.
If you wish, I will say a special prayer for y’all." Take a look!

Brooke, at NeoCon Command Center posts 9-11: A Day Which Shall Live In Infamy, asking, "Where were you?

Do you remember what you were doing, what you were feeling?" Have an answer for her?

neo-neocon has her own view with Looking at 9/11, half a decade later. She says, "Yes, 9/11 seems a long time ago. But in other ways 9/11 seems fresh and recent--and especially so on the anniversary, when documentaries revisit the pain and open old wounds." A good read.

Judy Rose at Rose Petals, relates in I Will Never Forget, "It was just about time for me to get up. My husband was already busy watching the early stock market reports on TV. As I was contemplating whether I could sneak another ten minutes, he came into the bedroom and said, 'You won’t believe what just happened. A plane hit the World Trade Center.'" Go read the post!

Tom at Tom's Common Sense said, in his post Remembering 9/11, "Where was the next attack going to happen, and when? Everyone struggled to make sense of the madhouse that the country had become. Nothing was the same, nor would it ever be again. And the skies went silent except for the roar of fighter jets on patrol."

Siggy at Sigmund, Carl and Alfred, takes a look at 'Little Eichmanns' And Real Martyrs. Visit!

March Hare has a stunning look at her memory of September 11, 2001. Don't miss it.