It was ten years ago, today, that the greatest tragedy in our lifetimes, possibly in the entire history of our grand country, took place in New York City. It was today that extremists took control of our airplanes and used them to try and strike fear into our country. To try and break our will and melt down our mettle. It has been ten years since the darkest day in any of our memories has started to yield its gloom to a brilliant dawn.
September 11, 2001 was the day that terror failed to assassinate America. Instead, all the terrorists succeeded in doing was to reunite us, Americans. We had become comfortable and complacent in our lives and had started to forget what it was to be an American. We had let our differences come between the one commonality that we all forgot that we had. We were starting to forget that to be American was to be indivisible. The terrorists thought that this was the time, that if they struck and hit hard enough, that they could put permanent fractures into our society and splinter us apart.
Blacks. Whites. Hispanics. Asians. Rich. Poor. Educated. Ignorant. Men. Women. Christians, Muslims and Buddhists.
They miscalculated, though. They misjudged what America is, fundamentally. They failed to realize that the BEST thing about our country is that in times of hardship, in times of crisis, where most others do fall apart and splinter away, America puts aside her petty differences. She puts away anything that might further drive the stake of segregation and we unite.
We unite under fifty stars and thirteen stripes. We unite under three colors; Red, White and Blue. We unite under a Pledge of Allegiance that promises indivisibility, liberty and justice for all. But, most importantly, we unite regardless of race, sex or creed.
On September 11, 2001 we said "We Will Never Forget" and we never will.
On September 11, 2011, when it comes to what it means to be American, I say;
"Let's Never Forget Again."
