In Memorium, forgive the length Options

[Bargod]

It's hard to believe it's been three years. Yesterday I saw a short memorial show on a cable channel. You would think after three years I could watch and not be affected. I was wrong.
As my 13 month old son ran around be as cute as he could possibly be, I cried. I didn't cry as hard as I did three years ago, but I cried because it was like pouring salt in an open wound.
I cried because I still feel the pain of the loss. Yes, as many of you know, I live in Dallas now, as I did at the time of the horror. But I grew up in New Jersey. On a clear day, as a child, I could climb the tree in my front yard and look north. Over the harbor, maybe 30 miles away, I could see on the horizon only one landmark, the Twin Towers. I used that landmark many times. I used it when I visited friends and family in NYC. If I ever felt lost, all I had to do was find the towers and I could generally find my way. My first trip to the city (well, that I remember, since in my early childhood I lived there) was to the Twin Towers and then to Madison Square Garden for the circus. I will always have that memory, but I can't pass it on.
I cried also because I have many family members and friends there, living and working in Manhattan. That day and the day after you could not put a call into or out of the city. I was unsure if my family and friends were ok. My family and friends were ok, but there were family members of people I knew that perished.
I cried because several days after the event, while planes were still not flying, my wife asked me how long I thought things would be this way. Since she was distanced from the event, never having been there and not having any family members in harms way (except for mine, which she at that point knew were safe) she had only cried at the time of the event, but had since become more freaked out at the change of lifestyle of America. When I pointed out to her that things could never change, that from this point on America would always have to be on the lookout for any random terrorist who wanted to kill innocent people to prove whatever crazy point they wanted to prove, this is when she finally cried. She cried for the death of innocence in our country. We, having grown up in the end of the cold war, and saw the world become a better place, we now have to worry that our children instead have to grow up in a world of fear and paranoia. We have lost civil rights, but the expense is safety. It is a hard thing to give up, but what is the trade off.
I cried because of these things. Lost memories, lost lives, lost innocence, lost rights as individuals.
I'm not happy with all the changes that have taken place in our country since that time. But I still understand that many of these changes are keeping us safe. I wish we could go back to a more innocent time, but that is impossible.
All we can do is be strong. We cannot allow our lives to change because of the vague threats put against us. We cannot allow ourselves to become distraught at the horrors of the new world we live in. We can only resolve ourselves to leading the world in this new time and showing our strength through unity with ourselves and our allies. We cannot let the propoganda of the naysayers bring us down to a level where we once again make ourselve vulnerable to attacks on our own soil.
God bless America and God bless those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.