09/11/2023
I remember that day. Vividly. I was in the 4th grade. Miss Harrington's class. Another teacher came in and I heard them whispering about something and they are visibly shaken. Somehow, we knew, we all knew. Our world was different. The world that bright eyed 9 year old boy woke up to was gone. We didn't know how but we knew. They sent students home early and that evening I was at home while mom and my brother were at the ER because he had cut his thumb open on a can of beans. I remember. Watching over and over as those planes flew into those buildings in a city I had never been to, hurting people I'd never met. I saw the evil and villainy of mankind that day, and I was scared, angry, hurt, and confused. Imagining that I'd go sign up for the Army the next day to fight the people that did this, but mostly I was a scared little boy in a nation in pain. But this speech, it gave me peace, calm resolution knowing that I wasn't alone. That New York, Pennsylvania, and DC weren't alone. In the following months we saw so much of the best of this nation. I love my country. I love her people. And every year, there's a hole: for those that woke up that same day, fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, sisters and brothers, friends that woke up and never came home. Most days I can feel the hope, but on that day, that one day and for but a moment I'm that scared little boy looking at every plane like a flying death machine, ready to take on evil by himself if he must. My heart hurts for my people, it hurts for the people of NYC, in that spirit today let's love more than hate. Let's focus on what makes us similar as Americans instead of what sets us apart. After all, we're all on the same ship. God bless you, and God bless America.
9/11/2001Records of the White House Communications Agency (George W. Bush Administration)National Archives Identifier: 6171390Washington, D.C. President Geor...
