September 11th

It was a chilly September morning, fifteen years ago, when the America I grew up with officially came to an end.

I can still recall where I was, and exactly what I was doing when I first heard the news... I was on a scissor lift, 25 feet in the air, wiring a new building at work. A man came running through the work area screaming about how "they" attacked New York. (He was a well known paranoid, and there was no telling who "they" were at the time.) I told him that no one was going to attack New York, and then I got the call to report to the office. When I arrived, the first tower and the Pentagon had already been hit. The TV was running a live report on, and to my amazement, I watched a plane strike the second tower. I couldn't believe what I had just seen, nobody could.

We didn't know then, how much our world was about to change. We had no way of knowing that our illusions of safety were over forever. All we knew, in those horrible moments, was that we were all Americans. There was no white or black, there wasn't any Republicans or Democrats, no Conservatives or Liberals. We were truly one.

In those moments, we discovered exactly what it means to be an American. We pledged then, that we would never forget... but we have. So many of us don't seem to remember the anger and outrage we felt then. So many have forgotten the unity and brotherhood we all felt at the sight of so many innocents losing their lives at the hands of cowards.

I haven't forgotten.