We Must NEVER forget that Day.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Adams" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: Off Topic: 9 11


> Thanks Phil, I totally agree.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 3:26 AM
> Subject: [BLIND-HAMS] Off Topic: 9 11
> 
> 
>>I stayed up late to watch the stories of 9 11 on the biography
>> channel.  Throughout the evening, I told myself that I didn't need
>> to watch it any more, yet something deep down inside made me feel
>> otherwise.  Finally, when it was time, I turned the TV on and
>> watched it all over again as I had six years ago.  I kept asking
>> myself why?  Why watch it all again?  The answer is twofold. 
>> First, it dawned on me that the people who died that day deserve
>> my respect and honor for their individual bravery.  Yes, I mean
>> all who died were heroes to me.  For example, just think of the
>> tremendous courage it took even for those who jumped to their
>> deaths because they had no way out.  Many died without even
>> knowing why, but I know why, and out of honor for them, I watched
>> it all again and cried again and prayed again for those who lived
>> and are still suffering.  I promised the dead that I will never
>> forget them and I won't.  As I sat once again tonight and watched
>> it happen all over again, as if it were yesterday, one thing
>> clearly came to mind, It is true.  We are at war.  What is below,
>> I wrote a year following the original tragedy.  It is the second,
>> and perhaps most important, reason why I watch it happen again
>> tonight.  I trust we never forget who we are and what we stand
>> for and I hope we never forget who did this to us as Americans. 
>> If we do, perhaps we who remain should not call ourselves
>> Americans any longer.
>> 
>> A year ago, I was listening to the morning news at the report of
>> the first plane which crashed into tower number one.  When the
>> second plane crashed into the second tower, I knew then it was no
>> accident and that we were under some sort of terrorist attack.  I
>> even told my wife that day that we could expect more planes now
>> and in the future any place in the country.  You can't, after all,
>> read any of Tom Clancy's books or Steven Coonts without knowing
>> that their are people out there that hate our way of life and will
>> do anything they can to destroy what they hate.  They will even
>> kill themselves in the process.  I can easily say I probably
>> listened to at least 70 or 80 hours of TV and radio that week a
>> year ago.  I even awakened during the night and unable to sleep,
>> got up and listened for hours to all the reports.  A very good
>> friend of mine flies for United.  I believe it was the first plane
>> that crashed into the first trade tower that was the flight out of
>> Boston to Los Angeles.  My friend flies that same Boston to L A
>> route all the time.  I finally got up the courage to call his home
>> here in Denver to ask his wife if he was home or off flying that
>> week.  I was so relieved when she said, "He is home.  Let me put
>> him on the phone."  He flew over 200 combat missions in jet
>> fighters in Vietnam but my friend could hardly talk on the
>> telephone that day he was so shaken.  The first flight he was
>> assigned to fly when the airlines were allowed to fly again was
>> the return flight from L A into Boston.  At any rate, today I
>> listened to TV all day once again and all evening just about.  I
>> often think of my oldest son now living in New Jersey and how one
>> time his company flew him to New York and he had to go to the top
>> of one of the towers to teach company employees some new software. 
>> In fact, he had a meeting scheduled for yesterday in the city but
>> the security was becoming so tight, everyone was canceling their
>> meetings so he canceled his.  I couldn't help think today, as I
>> did a year ago, my son could have easily been in one of those
>> towers.  All day today something was gnawing at the back of my
>> mind but I couldn't put my finger on it.  Yes, I cried several
>> times today listening to all the stories just like I did a year
>> ago and I prayed, too, for the families who suffered such a great
>> loss just as I did a year ago.  As I listened to how minute by
>> minute decisions were being made by our nationally elected leaders
>> and by the police and fire fighters and hundreds of others, I
>> suddenly said out loud, I sure am glad to be an American.  That's
>> what had been gnawing at me all day and when it finally came to
>> me, I literally spoke it out loud before I realized it.  I've
>> never fought in a war or carried a weapon or ever done anything
>> any more patriotic than fly an American flag outside my window.  I
>> can truthfully say that today, for perhaps the very first time in
>> my life, I honestly felt proud to be an American.  I wasn't just
>> proud of all the people who helped save lives a year ago as I
>> listened to the news coverage today and I wasn't just thankful
>> that it happened to somebody else and not me or my family.  I can
>> honestly and truthfully say today, fellow Americans and the way
>> they lived and died, made me proud I am one of them.  People died
>> in the air, on the ground, and in buildings and most died without
>> even knowing why.  We know why now.  they didn't die because they
>> were black or white or because they spoke English or Japanese or
>> Spanish or French.  They did not die because they were old or
>> young; male or female.  they didn't die because they were
>> religious or atheists.  They died because they were Americans.  I
>> believe I now have some understanding of what it really means to
>> be an American and I wouldn't have it any other way.
>> 
>> Phil.
>> 
>> 
>> K0NX
>> The Zenith Tube
>> www.RedWhiteAndBlue.org
>