Remembering

Ten years ago tomorrow I had just gotten to school and turned on the Today show....it was at that moment that I found myself glued to the television and to the floor.  The events of that day will be forever etched in my mind.  All day long my television was on....and when there were no students in my room....I sat at my desk and cried.  I remember calling my mom and dad, my children, my dearest friends, I did not eat all day.  Life as I had always known it was no longer.  You have to understand....I grew up during the Cuban Missile Crisis.....and my life changed....I had night terrors for months....I was in elementary school and would wake up in the middle of the night screaming for my father....I didn't even know what a Communist was....but they were coming to take my dad away(in my dreams).  I remember the days the Kennedy brothers were shot, and Martin Luther King,....yes, I grew up during some tumultuous years....but nothing was like Sept. 11th.  it seemed like yesterday I had just taken a picture of my daughter and her friend Jill from the Statue of Liberty.....was that really in 1998?  It really saddens me to look at the two of them smiling with the twin towers behind them.....and now....they are no more....and what makes it worse....we, America, had been attacked.  I remember my second block class when a female student walked in and groaned saying, "Oh come on do we have to watch this mess in here too?  I mean come on, planes hit the towers and they fell down."  I looked sadly at the young lady and said, "yes  sweetheart, and you need to commit it to memory because life as you knew it yesterday is over." So, now ten years later....what has changed?  We have tightened security at airports....and yet, I still don't feel safe like I did prior to 9/11.  Our nations security is always on alert and aware....and that is comforting.  I am more aware in crowds.  I tend to avoid mass gatherings.... It was a black day for America and it colored the way I see the world today. On Wednesday night at church we talked about tomorrow with our children and youth and I became very aware that a large number of our children were not even born...so it really does not impact their little worlds.....but they do have family members who have or are serving in the Middle East....and that is very real for them. When I go to sleep tonight....I know that I am safe....and still free because there are men over seas fighting to keep me that way.  The terrorists on 9/11 may have injured America....but they did not kill her.  On the news this morning people were tweeting and facebooking and talking about that day.....and the question they are addressing is, just where were you when the world stopped turning?  I was in Alex City, AL and my world changed forever.  I don't take as much for granted any more.  How about you? God Bless You All Today!