It has been ten years.  Ten long, often arduous years.  Most of those years have been filled with challenges, not just for me but for my country.  It’s been ten years and I can still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that Tuesday morning when the world changed.   I was the reason the wage tax office found out so soon.  It was my first temp job after college.  We normally watched the Today show and I asked if I could switch it.  I did and saw smoke coming out of one of the World Trade Center towers.  No one knew, at that point, what was going on and why on earth a plane (for that was the report) had hit the towers.  A tragic and terrible accident we all thought.  That is, of course, until the second plane hit the second tower.  I can remember watching shock as they show the plane hitting the tower.  It was no accident.  Who was doing this and why?  What else was going to happen?  Was it over?   They were talking to the Pentagon correspondent when the image shook and there were loud noises.  We saw that live.  It took a few minutes to discover that the Pentagon had been hit by a plane as well.  Reports were going out that many planes – 16, 11, etc. – were unaccounted for.  The network was reporting rumors and no one had a clue.  My memory loses track of the order of events.  I know that there was news of a plane crash in Shanksville, PA near Stoystown and Jennerstown.  I went to summer church camp near Stoystown and Jennerstown.  I didn’t understand that.  We knew by then it was terrorists, but I knew there was nothing in that area that could be considered a target.  It was mostly farm country and small towns.  I don’t know if they were looking at the first tower live when it happened, but I remember watching it fall.  I know the cameras were showing a live feed when the second tower fell.  Thousands were dead.  I knew it.  I can remember seeing images of dust and smoke and hearing the horrible sound of firefighter locators.  Well, the sound is horrible to me now.  I can’t hear it without going back to those scenes.  I don’t think we got any work done that day.  I don’t remember when the news came out about the heroism of the passengers on Flight 93, but I can remember admiring them.  They knew they were all dead and they were the first of us to fight the war on terror.  I think they were the ones who gave many courage and hope that we (and by we I mean ordinary people) all could do something to make a difference and save lives when the time came.  It saddens me to know that their memorial is not fully funded.  I also admire the first responders who went into that very dangerous situation to try to save lives.  They did save many people, but many of them lost their lives as well.  I’ve always known that they have a courage and compassion that I lack.  I admire them, but truly it was the passengers on that doomed plane who defeated the terrorists who gave me the hope that in that type of situation that I could do something to make a difference.

The overwhelming support shown by the entire country can still make me smile.  All the people who traveled both great and small distances to help New York and DC recover and rebuild.  The money that was raised for the families of the victims.  I can remember a business owner who worked in the Towers who was late that day because he was taking his child to school coming on the air and promising to give money to the families of his employees.  I don’t recall his name, but I do hope he kept that promise.  I can remember the emotions of the President and the other political leaders and all the events held to raise money to help.   We didn’t break, we got back up, and today we still stand as a proud nation.

I know that it saddens me to know that there are those who believe that the whole thing was a sham.  That our government did it intentionally.  Were things missed leading up to it? Yes.  Are those misses more glaringly obvious after the fact than before the attack?  Most definitely.  No one I know had ever considered that a jet plane would be used as a bomb instead of as someplace to get hostages.  It seems obvious now, but not then.  I was old enough then to know and remember and the common man just did not consider that.  I can not speak for the terrorists and Al Qaeda who obviously did think of it nor for the people who were employed to stop terrorism since I did not know any at the time.  I think it is a real credit to our leaders, our intelligence agencies, and our military that in the past ten years we have not had another major terrorist attack on our soil and I certainly pray that the rest of the day goes by without incident.  It is also a credit to our allies who have assisted us – many of whom have also suffered from terrorist attacks in the past ten years.  It is a battle, I know, between law enforcement and terrorists to see who can win each day and I pray that each day law enforcement wins.  Killing people may get attention to a cause, but it leaves holes in many lives.  One day another terrorist may try something similar to the attacks on September 11th and my sister or my brother-in-law might just be flying the plane or be a passenger on the plane.  I know they both would fight but as little as I see them I don’t want to lose them.  No longer will the majority of pilots and crew co-operate with terrorists since we now know that hostages and negotiations are not the number one uses for planes.  We have  the memories of the brave people on Flight 93 to thank for that.  One of my favorite songs is “One Last Time” by Dusty Drake:

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