9/11

Not sure if all y'all in blog-land will be blogging about 9/11/01 today, but I felt like it.

This morning I turned the TV on to see if anyone was reporting on the tragedy that happened eight years ago today. Eight years! I can' t believe it's been that long! It really seems like it happened last year. So, I turned on the tv and the Today Show wasn't talking about it and neither was Good Morning America....go figure, I had to go to the Fox News Channel to see anything about it. They had special tributes and moments of silence and everything you would expect to see today. When I was flipping through the channels and looking at what was going on it was almost as if no one was remembering what happened. Not that we should be dwelling on the past, but I think that today is a day to always remember. It was said the day that this tragedy took place that it was another "Day that will live in infamy".....it certainly will be the day of infamy for my generation. It is really like our "Pearl Harbor" for those of us old enough to remember what happened on this day eight years ago.

I will never forget......
I was working at AT&T Wireless at the time. 9/11/01 was the year anniversary of my employment there. I worked the 2-11 shift and was sleeping when the first plane hit..... My mom has always been an early riser and when she woke up she turned on the tv and it was all over the stations. I remember her coming into my room bawling her eyes out and saying "Sarah, someone has bombed the world trade center in New York". At first I didn't know what she was talking about, all I wanted to do was sleep, but I woke up and walked into my parents bedroom. My dad was sitting on the edge of the bed and my mom was curled up on her side of the bed still crying. I was in a groggy state of shock. It was like watching a movie because it didn't seem real at all! We just sat there with eyes wide open. There were tears and gasps as we watched footage of the second plane hitting the other tower....to this day when I watch it happen I just cannot believe it actually happened. I got up and called my ex-boyfriend (boyfriend at the time) and I think he was already watching it too at his parents house. As the day went on and the news of the other crashes arose I called into my supervisor at work to see if we were to come in to work. He said that we were, so I got ready and went in. Our call center was right down the street from the CA National Guard headquarters and there was a blockade set up. I had to show them my work ID so I could get into the parking lot at work.....I felt like our nation had become a war zone even though those incidents were thousands of miles away. We went into the building, went upstairs into the call center area and it was completely silent (if you've ever worked customer service you know that's an odd thing because there is always talking going on). We went over to our work area and our "team" was standing around our sup. He explained to us that we had an option to stay and work for triple pay or go home to be with our families. It just didn't feel right to be working, so I opted to go home and spend the rest of the evening with my family. As the day dwindled down we all were back at home eyes still glued to the tv and the smoke billowing over Manhattan. I felt violated and numb at the same time.

It has been eight years and other things have happened on this day over those years. I lost a friend, Brian, on 9/11, but a few years after the towers came down. He was on a church boating trip, he slipped and fell into the propeller of the boat. He was such an amazing man of God and I will always remember Brian and his amazing family!

I feel that this day needs to become a national holiday of rememberance. Not just for those who perished in the attack or while helping, but to remember all tragedies. I feel one day it might become just that, but while we wait for that day we can all still remember and pray. We can pray for the families that are still grieving their loved ones, we can pray for our nation, we can pray for our President and our congress men and women. We can pray for our troops that are still being deployed to protect our great nation and other nations from those that would want to cause harm. We just need to pray and to never forget what happened on this day eight years ago in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon.

"...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT

SJR