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it's tomorrow, but i'm feeling it today. listening to mary chapin carpenter's "grand central station" earlier, i don't mind confessing that the tears came streaming down.

it's a bitter, bitter anniversary that we observe tomorrow. the rubble has been cleared away, but who knows how many ghosts remain... it will always be a graveyard, holy ground.

but remember, through the outrage and pain, can you remember how we came together in the following days and weeks? do you remember what it felt like when we all were americans together?

in the memory of those who perished that horrible day three years ago, i just want to ask everyone here to take some time to reflect upon that. maybe just for a day we can all be americans together again, united.

Cav,

I just got back a few weeks ago from a fammily vacation to DC and then NY. I had never been and it was a very intense trip for me and I saw so many things that solidified to me what being an American meant. From the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial to the Vietnam Vets Memorial to the Korean War Memorial and so on.
I shed tears at all of these but by far the most powerful visit was to Ground Zero. It overwhelmed me to the point that I had to sit down for fear of falling down. The memories of that day were as vivid as if they had just happened. My heart broke 2749 times again.
As I was sitting there crying with my children asking me what was wrong I realized that I must never forget this feeling. I must never stop crying for the men and women that perished. I need to pass this on to my kids as they get older so that they understand the magnitude of what happened that day. I don't ever want the 2749 deaths to be just a number to them. I want them to understand the human element that is in that number. I want them to truly know what happened on 9/11/01.

Agreed...

I think the left and the right remember 9-11 vividly… the question is what lessons did each of us learn. I think we can all agree the moment changed our lives forever. For me, the tragedy will always be remembered as a horrific event, but I hold the sliver of hope that those who lost their lives did so to teach America and the world what freedom is, what responsibilities it entails, the dangers it brings and last but most importantly, the joy it brings to be free.

thanks, drj -- that sounds awesome, literally. i'd love to see pics if possible.

i think that something vast and healing takes place when people gather together like that. wish i could get out tomorrow to go to the local memorial (held on the battleship USS NC on the cape fear river). instead i think i'll spend some time in silence and prayer and remembrance here on my own.

it's odd how the body remembers certain things. when i remembered what tomorrow was, it all came back to me -- that huge sensation of grief and incomprehensible... something. can't even describe it, but i'll bet everyone here knows what i mean.

I almost forgot the positive. I remember that for even a few weeks afterwards, people even drove their cars more considerately of each other, were more tolerant of each other, were willing to accept one anothers differences in light of the fact that we were ALL attacked. Nevermind that you may live in Podunk Kansas or the backside of nowhere Texas, If for whatever reason you found yourself in NYC that day, and went up those Towers to enjoy the view, or conduct business, you were as much a target as those who were there! You were (and are) still a target by virtue of being who and what you are, an American!

In 1835, a year before the Alamo, the Presidente de Mexico General Santa Anna sent General Cos up to the city of Gonzales to confiscate a cannon that the king of Spain had given the settlers there for protection from the indians. It was a pathetic thing, only fifty caliber, and so old THEN that it was almost as much a hazard to a would-be gunner as anyone being shot at by it. When Cos and his army got to the ford at the Gonzales River, he saw all the men from town flanking the cannon, with a couple of volunteers to shoot it. A flag flew from a pole affixed to that gun, it bore a picture of the cannon, and the words "COME AND TAKE IT". If anyone hasn't got the idea after Afghanistan and Iraq, that we are serious about life, liberty and the persuit of all who threaten it, "COME AND TAKE IT!"

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember getting in my car and going to school that day...it is a half hour drive and about half way there, I turn on the radio. I thought that it was world war three. There was so much confusion and shock and terror. All I could think of was my family and my wife and what was going to happen. It was a horrible ride until I could get to a pay phone and just hear her voice. We are in california and nothing really happened here, but I was scared just the same. Many things have changed after that and many things have stayed the same...I still go to work, I still go to school, and I will say that there are months when I don't even think about it. But then I will hear a certain song (anything by Bob Dylan or Wilco since that was what I was listening to at the time) and many memories come back. I hope that I always feel this way and that the rest of America does too. I hope we can remember the time of our countries greatest tragedy, and possibly its most shining moment. I think that in the weeks after, the country woke up and for a short time, we were America.