Friday Family Flashback-Remembering 9/11

Welcome to another edition of Friday Family Flashback. This week we are going to flashback to 9/11/01. I know it was not a great day to flashback to, but it is a day that changed us as Americans.

Today it has been 8 years since 9/11/01. Seems like yesterday when this happened. It will always be one of those days that you remember where you were & what you were doing when you heard the terrible news.

I was just waking up on the morning of 9/11/01. My radio had just come on & I was listening to the news people talking to a man in New York about a plane that had crashed into one of the twin towers. At the time, everyone thought it was a small plane & not an airliner. I wasn't paying much attention as the guy was explaining what he had witnessed from his apartment window.

What finally grabbed my attention was when the man's wife started screaming in the background that another plane had just slammed into the other tower. This started the man screaming & all the screaming got me up real quick. I turned on the TV to see what was going on. They should footage of an airliner slamming into one of the World Trade Center twin towers. I couldn't believe what I was seeing on my TV. They explained that both towers had been hit by 2 different airliners. Then they came on the TV & said that the Pentagon had been hit as well. I was in shock. This kind of stuff doesn't happen in America. It happens in Israel, and the other countries in the middle east, but not here.

I woke Brandon up to watch & then ran down to Mike's apartment to tell him about it and watch the TV with him. I couldn't believe my eyes when the twin towers came crashing down. It was almost more than I could bear. My heart ached for all the families that this tragedy would affect. Never realizing at the time how this would affect all of our lives as well.

Even writing about it now, takes me back to that precise moment in time. I still feel the same despair & denial that I felt that day. How could someone hate a country so much as to do this? How can there be such evil?

With so much bad, evil, pain & suffering that this event brought. It also brought some good. It brought this country together as one nation. There was no Democrat or Republican, Rich or Poor, black or white. It didn't matter what you were, we were all AMERICANS. And we were UNITED. That is the part of 9/11 I try to remember the most.

Too bad we didn't hang on to that for very long as a nation. We have now gone back to bickering with each other again. Let's hope that it doesn't take another 9/11 to remind us that we are the greatest country in the world.

I hope that all of you will take a moment today to thank God that you live in the USA and to remember those who lost their lives on that fateful day & praise the heroes of that day. And don't forget the soldiers who put their lives on the line in other parts of the world to protect our freedoms.

Never forget that freedom is not free.

What are your memories of 9/11? Where were you & what where you doing when you heard the news of that day? Write your responses in comments or you can write your own post with your tribute.

Kim

And if you missed this video from my Sunday post, you need to watch it now.



Added at 12:30pm: I just found this video on a friend Sue's blog that I thought was perfect for today. It is about saying thanks to those that serve in the armed forces to protect our freedoms. This is such an easy gesture. I think we can all handle doing this one.