story4104.xml

story4104.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

My husband and I were watching Little House on the Prarie when the newscaster broke in with the news. As soon as we heard the basics, we turned to CNN to get the whole story. We both stared at the T.V. in disbelief as history was played out on our screen. We cried when we saw the images of people running from the building and jumping out of windows. We cried when we saw the stories of people looking for their missing loved ones. We cried when we heard the stories of the heros who gave their lives trying to save the lives of others. We cried when we heard of the incredibly heroic acts of the passengers of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. We cried a lot that day and in the days to come as we heard all the stories of the families who searched hospitals and morgues for their missing members both hoping to find them, and at the same time praying they weren't there. We cried when the last hopes of finding any survivors was gone.

Then an amazing thing happened. We all seemed to forget for awhile that we were black or white, Mexican or Latino, democrate or republican, gay or straight, Protestant or Catholic. For a while those things were irrelevant. We all came together in a common cause and remembered what patriotism is all about. We remembered that it is in God we trust. We remembered that emergency personnell have dangerous jobs with little pay for our benefit. We remembered that we are suppose to be thankful for our families and try to love our neighbors. We remembered that this country with all its' faults is ours and we will defend our freedoms. For awhile we remembered that we are all just Americans. Please, let's never forget again.