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.
> 
> 
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