9/11---A day not to forget...being part of history.

First of all, before I begin telling you what a great time I had this past weekend, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that today is the 5 year anniversary of 9/11.  I'm sure everyone has their own thoughts, views and memories of that horrible day.....just as I do.  I remember being in court around 9am when an attorney came and told me a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  I can still recall thinking of what a freak sort of accident that must have been--not realizing at the time the horrible piece of living history that I was going through at the time.  The day went on and began to unfold like a bad dimestore novel, with everyone beginning to slow freak out over what was happening--and then of course wondering if more attacks would be forthcoming.  We all went home in an almost blind panic....wanting to hold our families a little bit tighter that night...to keep them a little bit closer to us.  I was still relatively new to the whole business of being a "dad" at that point, and I can remember talking to my own father, trying to understand the madness that was unfolding on television in front of me and my own children.  My wife and I made the decision to have the children watch what was happening, to try and let them know that they were viewing a part of our nation's history right there on television before their very own eyes.
I can remember my daughter Kellie, then aged 9, asking me if they were going to attack us here in Coral Springs, Florida....and remember telling her that what was happening was in New York City--and had nothing to do with Coral Springs, Florida.

It was a couple of days later that I read that one of the terrorists had in fact, lived in Coral Springs, Florida the previous year---not even a mile from my house.  I might have walked past the guy one day in a mall or at the grocery store.

And I realized that what happened that day was not about New York City.  It was about ALL of us......you, me....them.

This was our generation's Pearl Harbor...being broadcast to us in our living rooms.
We were part of history, and 5 years later....we must not, we cannot...ever forget.

Later,
Jeff