Always Remember,Never Forget! 9/11

11 years ago today I was still sleeping at around this time. Indiana had not yet been forced to recognize DST so it was still before 8:00 A.M. for us.
Ellen and I were anticipating an enjoyable day constituting a visit from my mother. Our daughter was just a little girl then,only 2 years old and  was asleep still when the attacks began.
Ellen roused me to have me watch the news,she was shocked that some kind of plane seemed to have struck one of the twin towers. We,like NBC in that moment were just a little surprised and were treating it like it was a novelty almost. It wasn't. We just didn't understand yet what had happened.

We continued to watch the news and wait for Mom's arrival and the the worst happened,the second plane smashed into the other tower. It was a moment to surreal to fully grasp.
After this the news just got more terrible and confusing. How could this happen? It's insane to think that two planes could accidentally hit the towers,but of course we did believe that in that moment. I'd like to live in a world where it was the truth,but I don't. The planes hit the towers with deeply malicious intent,they meant to kill and destroy and terrify and demoralize their enemy and they came close to fully succeeding,but ONLY close.

It may seem odd,especially to those without kids,but the worst part of that day for me was getting my sweet little girl out of her bed, She was innocent,she had done nothing at all to encourage these evil men to do this. Neither did any of those in the towers or on board the plane that the passengers bravely battled their captors on only to have them crash it into that field in Pennsylvania. Neither were those in the Pentagon,many of whom were civilians and not members of our armed forces.
They didn't deserve to be killed,many of them also had mothers,daughters,wives. They too were just going about their day. They too loved someone,or were loved by someone,and they too had someone that would be shattered by their death.

Fortunately,no harm came to either myself,or my immediate family (or friends) nor to Madison itself.
My mother visited,we enjoyed one another's company,parted ways,and we tried to make sense of the insensible attacks as we wound down our day. There was no escaping this,even the cable channels devoted to children's programming had already switched to coverage of the attacks as they were unfolding . There was a palpable sense of unease and disquiet throughout the city and there were ludicrously long lines at the gas pumps,including a traffic jam on the bridge over the Ohio River from motorists trying to fill their tanks in Kentucky because of the lower cost.

The terrorist's attacks murdered almost 3,000 people that day. My ramblings here are not designed to dishonor those killed,they're really meant to just serve as a reminder that we all experienced that day,all of us,everywhere. NONE of us came away from that day entirely unchanged,I know I didn't.

Please take a moment today to reflect and remember. Don't treat this as just another day,it's not.