Remembering 9/11

I waited until today to start this blog. Why? Mostly because I couldn't think of a day that really started me thinking towards the political right. That and the other political blog I have called Galen's Random Thoughts has a tribute to one of the 2996 victims of 9/11 on it as part of the 2996 procect. I didn't want this blog to detract from that one. That message will be the last one I post on there. It is a fitting way to end that blog and begin this one. It you have a chance, please look at that entry, honoring Thomas G. Crotty and the life he lived.

I remember what I was doing that day, as do perhaps all Americans do. My wife and oldest daughter (the only daughter at the time) and I had just gotten back from Las Vegas the day before. We had been married on the seventh there. My wife and daughter were just leaving for her work when I turned on the tv and saw for the first time the first tower on fire. I remarked to her about this, kissed her and our daughter and they left. It was when the second tower was hit that I grew concered and called my wife and asked if maybe she might come home...she said no.

Then the Pentegon was hit. Then Flight 93 went down. By this time I had stopped working and sat there glued to the set. My wife and I talked quite a bit as people here in the Dallas area started getting skittish about what was happening. EDS in Plano, very near where my wife was working at the time was rumored to about to be evacuated, as was the BankOne tower downtown.

My wife's parents were still in Vegas and she was worried about that being a target. We all were including me. I was worried about my wife and child and wanted them home. But I was in shock. Again, we all were.

The one thing that really sticks out in my mind, even till this day, is the night of 9/11. We lived at that time in the direct flight path of DFW airport and seeing 10 to 15 planes at a time in the sky was normal. That night my wife and I stood on our patio and looked up...at nothing but sky. That I think is when it really hit home.

As for today, when I see the events transpire, like I see them today on CNN, I still feel heartbroken for those who lost loved ones that day, and seeing the persons trapped on the upper floors jump to their deaths instead of being burned alive...I get angry. Angry at the lack of response from our government in the past before 9/11 and then at the fact we didn't NUKE Afghanistan afterwards, when we knew were bin Ladin was. Today, I think we are still vulnerable to a major attack, just not this time from aircraft. And with the ACLU firmly behind the terrorist, the terrorist don't have to worry, the ACLU will be happy to tear down the walls the Bush Administration have built up to keep them out.

That's all for now. God Bless us all.