nmah565.xml

nmah565.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-29

I was in my supervisor's office and everyone was gathered around his desk watching tv when I noticed it was the Twin Towers in New York City. There had been a crash with a plane hitting one of the buildings there. As we were watching and wondering if the crash was intentional, we noticed a plane from the right side of the tv screen that was headed straight for the Towers. We all watched in horror as the second plane crashed also. Now we knew it was a deliberate act of violence. We were all stunned. As I left his office for my own tv in my office, I realized I had felt this feeling before, when I was in the 10th grade. President Kennedy had been shot and our principal was addressing over the loud speaker. At that time, I was in Algebra class and my pencil fell from my hand in disbelief. The same feeling was back that I had experienced 37 years before. A numbness came over me then and again on 9/11/01.
We were all sent home where we sat glued to the TV set not really believing the horror that was on the TV. The tears started coming and were very hard to hold back, so I gave up and just kept the kleenex stuck to my nose. It had become raw and red. Our family cried together.

Suddenly everything became very focused. Nothing seemed to matter except family and friends. The errands, the chores, the busy work, none of that was important. All that seemed to matter now was make sure you say your feelings and don't worry about what others may think. Tell your husband, daughter, mother what you truely feel because it could all be over in a blink.
I began being faithful about praying and asking for help for the world. I prayed for longer years with my spouse and daughter. I stopped nagging about things that really did not matter. "Whatever" had a truer meaning now.
I still cry when I think of that day and give thanks for every day I have with my family and how lucky I am to live in this country. Those terrorists are so misguided and so sick.

They may bomb out buildings, kill our loved ones and think they have conquered their enemy, but they have truely under estimated the American people. Our nation became one that day with a common cause of love for our country, our fellow man and our God. We were founded by "In God We Trust" and it is in the heart of all our souls. We are a people that will never be "owned" and our beliefs run very deep. The world may not see this side of our Country very much, but when the chips are down, we all pull together. We would rather die fighting for what is right than let them win. All those people that died, died not in vain, but showed us what our true priorities were from that moment on.

Yes. I bought flags for the cars, flags for the door, and a flag for the driveway. I wore an American Flag pin on my clothes. And yes, the flag really had meaning for me now, not just our country's flag.