Tuesday, September 11, 2007

SEPTEMBER 11th: WHERE WERE YOU?

One of the great things about having time to yourself is the ability to nap when you feel like it. That's priceless.

Dogs do it all the time. Nap now. Nap later. Nap whenever they feel like it.

Candace naps in the afternoon. Rigorous workout in the morning. Chores around the house. Grandchild and grandmother doing this, doing that. Nothing like a nap before she heads back to the gym for an evening Yoga class.

I'll nap but not intentionally. Like reading each of the three newspapers that are delivered to our door every day. Sometimes the news can be a real snoozer. When I read the papers Jilli is next to me and sleeps (again!). And then I'll nod off somewhere between national news and the sports sections. Being an old fart is never having to say you're sorry for dozing off.

Each of us knows well where we were on that one September 11 morning. Who can forget? Last year on this very day I headed out for a camping trip by the ocean. Today we're readying the house for interior painting. Whatever I'm doing my thoughts will reach out to the families of the 9/11 victims. My thoughts this morning will also surround the events of that day and how very much 9/11 changed America.

Years past that infamous day in September, has anything changed in America that might change how others view the American people. We're not well liked in this world. Other citizens of the world think that Americans think like George Bush and react accordingly. Ugly Americans have become uglier in the eyes of those who live in other parts of our world.

I'd vote for a president who would promise to bring peace to our world and then actually do just that. I'd vote for a president who would extend the hand of friendship to other countries. I'd vote for a president who would be the champion of the poor people in countries like Darfur and who would also recognize the need to feed the poor people in America. I'd vote for a president, whether female or male, whether orange, pink, blue or any color, of any nationality, who would just say what they mean and mean what they say. The person elected can't talk out of the both sides of their mouth. The president elected in 2008 must be able to walk what they talk.

I'm hoping for good things in 2008.

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7 comments:

twilite said...

Hi Bob!

Interestingly I recall that fateful day...I heard on BBC special release that the first plane landed in one building. Then on tv...after 45 mins or so another and another! Terrorism struck! Then war!

Pain will remain and horror not forgotten. Has terrorism won the day? Hopefully not...it's barbaric and insane! What cowardice murdering the innocents and civilians! Cripple economy? Froze Americans?

Now Osama bin Laden is appealing your country to Islam! Will Obama be elected president? That day will endorse this appeal?

Bob said...

I don't think there's much to think about in terms of Obama being elected: It won't happen. The Clinton's seem to have already sewn up the presidential campaign. America definitely does not need another Clinton in the White House.

Blessed said...

Sept. 11, 2001 Forever in our hearts.
I was at work. It was a beautiful Sept. day. Work was going on as usual...at it's frantic pace and then my co-worker, our surgery scheduler had the radio on in her office. She comes up to the front office, it wasn't quite 9 a.m. She says someone has flown a plane into the world trade center. At this point I can't remember if she said one plane or two planes or one world trade center tower or two. I thought, at first, it was an accident, a horrible accident and then we knew it wasn't, other planes had been hijacked, a plane flew into the Pentagon, and another in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. There were no television sets that we could get to immediately at work. Finally at lunch the administrator turned on in her office this little 13 inch color TV. My eyes were filled with horror. I gasped. I cried. I don't know how I continued to work that day.
In total, including the terrorist there were 2993 deaths.
I was in shock. I was freaked out. I was afraid for my own life, my family, my friends, my American family, all people in general. I thought this is it! Our world as we know it has forever changed. I had to sleep with some sort of light on for a week. I was afraid that terrorists were going to get me. At night if I saw a shadow in my back yard, I panicked,I thought there is no more wasting time, I have to be a better Christian, I have to get closer to God.
It seemed everyone was proudly displaying their American flag. Flags were sold out at stores.
It still scares me to this day. I have not forgotten, maybe I have become a little less afraid, life has continued on, we are still at war tho, many lives have been taken, many lives shattered from 9/11, thru the aftermath, thru the fighting. It still breaks my heart.
I really don't think there is a day that goes by that I don't remember....especially when I am in a stairwell, which is atleast 5 days a week. I think about all those people trying to escape down the stairwell......horrible.

Do you think we have become complacent?

Bob said...

Blessed: Thank you for sharing a day in your life . . . a day that also stands out for most everyone as being most remarkably horrible. At the time I was a school district superintendent and had the duty of keeping everyone calm. It was not easy.

Have we become complacent? Somewhat. But I also think that America can do a better job of extending an olive branch with the goal of making more friends and fewer enemies.

Bob said...

P.S. I got hell for publishing this picture.

Evalinn said...

Great post Bob, I hope the same.

In 2001 I was in a seminar that day. We all had our phones turned off. Noone checked their e-mail or the Internet. Nothing. The seminar was about "how to predict the unprobable". When we got out of the seminar, it was to a different world.

Bob said...

Evalinn: Yes, it did turn out to be a different world after that day. What next, I ask myself....

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