Month: September 2014

I wrote this on my public facebook page this morning, and thought it was worth a share on my blog:

At about this time 13 years ago I was sitting in my office in Central City, KY glued to the TV screen with several other employees. Less than an hour before I had been on the WK parkway when I heard on the radio that a plane had flown into one of the towers in NYC.
By the time I had gotten into the office talk had changed from tragic accident to possible terror attack, and that was soon confirmed by the second plane.
I watched in horror as I saw the back smoke, gray dust, and panicked people all about the landscape I had walked only 9 months before. MY wife at the time was frantic, as her father lived on Staten Island and had an office not far from the Towers, and she couldn’t get him on the phone.
The manager at the CNCY office at the time kept coming in and turning the TV off and telling everyone it was time to get to work, and we just kept turning it back on.
I saw firefighters, ladder trucks, and engines I had met in NYC and traded patches with on my trip from earlier in the year, and I would find out later that one of the stations there I spent time in swapping stories of fire and ambulance runs was nearly completely wiped off men and trucks.
As the day went on the Pentagon was hit, and a plane went down in the countryside well outside DC. I watched the two main towers fall, and later watched as the squat and wide building 7 came down, even though it had not been hit.
It was a horrible day that our country will never forget, 343 fire fighters didn’t make it home to their families, and countless other police and rescue workers put their uniforms on for the last time that day. Many sacrifices were made that day by honorable men and women who ran in when everyone else was running out. We can Never Forget what they did that day.
We can also never forget what has happened to this country after that day. Our liberties are slowly being taken from us, the news media no longer even tries to report news, only regurgitates official press releases from the government, and the foundations of this great country of ours is being eroded away, all for the sake of “safety and security.”
Since that tragedy 13 years ago I have seen many things that blur the lines as to what really happened, and what direction our country should have gone. Endless wars. The Patriot Act. the DHS. Freedom traded for perceived security.
Never forget the sacrifices made that day by the rescue workers and other heroes who sifted through the wreckage, but also never forget where we are now as the People of this once great republic.
where were you 13 years ago at this time? And more importantly, where are we now as a Country?