I Remember

It is 9/11...a time to remember.

For 12 months beginning in 2002, sometimes every day of the week, I flew within viewing distance of Ground Zero and every time I saw it I remembered sitting at home in Manila and watching CNN live as the second plane hit. Every time it I saw Ground Zero my chest constricted and I fought back tears. For an entire year. 



I was privileged during that year to get the opportunity to visit the family viewing room. Escorted by a cousin of one of the Filipinos who died that day--he was murdered when the first plane hit--my wife and I spent an emotional hour looking at the mementos left by the families of those who were murdered along with him or died in the rescue aftermath. I remember gazing down into the hole at Ground Zero that is now hallowed ground. And I knew I would never forget.

Because I remember, it is painful to watch television today. It has been 8 years but the physical reaction that I get every time I see pictures or video of that day is as strong as the day I sat at home in Manila and watched the second plane hit live on TV. I now know what Pearl Harbor meant to my parents for the attack on 9/11 was every bit as infamous, if not more so, than that day in 1941. The attack on 9/11 was a dastardly attack on our country and, indeed, on the entire free world for the victims that day were of many nationalities, races and religions.

May those who were murdered that day and those who died trying to rescue them rest in peace.

As for the murderous thugs who perpetrated that evil out of an insane belief that they were doing God’s Will, I am certain that there is a special place in Hell where they will be for all eternity. What they did was an abomination.

I remember. I shall never forget.