A Day to Never Forget

It is easy to forget.  It is easy to remember.  It is a day where you may want to do the former, but need to do the latter.

September 11, 2001.  It is a sentence, a statement, and a feeling all it's own.

I forget why my wife was home from work that day.  She had a rib injury and was on vicodin.  I forget what my kids looked like.  My son was 2, my daughter a day short of seven months old.  I forget even what vehicle I drove that day.  I think it was a blue Taurus.

What I remember was the sarcastic bent to my first reaction.  Have we dumbed down our pilots enough where they can't miss a building?  "But the instruments say this is right..."

It changed when the second plane hit.

I remember the fleeting thought of Islamic stupidity.  I remember wanting a piece of people that put it together.  Blow your own world up, but leave mine alone.  Stay off my doorstep.  I will protect what is important.

What is important?  My faith, which is guaranteed that I will not be persecuted for.  My family, which could only happen in one place.  My team, at that time, the people I work with daily at a hospital, a possible terror target.  Who would protect us and defend our freedom?

People gave their lives to protect us and defend our freedom, from the days at Fort McHenry, commemorated in the Star Spangled Banner, to the foreign fields of service now inhabited by the bravest people one could hope to know. Brave doesn't mean you're not scared, it means you feel the fear and get the job done.

I'm grateful for all of them.  I will never forget that.

So.. am I off base/