Remembering 9/11

On September 11, 2001 I was in Prague. After the news I had dinner alone in the Marriott and was joined by two American couples who had come to Europe for the first time. The two men had flown fighters in WWII and they were there to reminisce. As we watched the television monitor they recalled briefly their time some 48 years earlier as young men and to them this was even more striking than Pearl Harbor. As with many tragedies as this we sometimes let memory slip into the past where it is safe, we forget the intensity of the feelings of that time. But for those of us who were proximate, we lost about 50 people in our town and the surrounding towns, this was real. Each town has a piece of the buildings as a memorial in some special place. We have different presidents, different leaders, but the same intense feeling amongst most Americans of the need to protect and defend. It is a day we all remember.