Remember 9/11

Forget about politics today. Take a moment to remember the over 3000 people that lost their lives in a savage, brutal, and unjustifiable attack on innocent civilians just 6 short years ago. Remember the firefighters and police officers who rushed in to save those innocent civilians without hesitation. Remember the soldiers fighting to protect our country from terrorist extremists in places known and unknown, and their comrades who have died by their sides. Remember too that we are all Americans, with a common love of freedom and a generosity that is unmatched in the history of the world.

It is unfortunate that we often become so embroiled in the now, that the atrocities and the victories of our past become foggy distant things that fail to move us.

There's a man in our family... a distant relative really, who died in the Pacific in 1945 fighting to defend our country in World War II. He never married and never had children. His only brother and his only brother's only son never had children. Everyone who was his blood relative is now gone. The only proof that he was ever alive or sacrificed his life for his country - for us, is a small stack of faded letters, a few discolored photographs, and the flag that draped his coffin.

It's been only 6 years since that September day; a day where the world changed (at least temporarily). How many of those who lost their lives that day are already fading into the dark recesses of our minds? How many didn't have family to honor their memory and their sacrifice? How many will become just a faded stack of letters or an unknown face in a photograph?

It's up to us to remember all of them from the soldier to the civilian who sacrificed their life, or whose life was viciously taken. Remember those who have died, and pray for those who continue to fight the war that was started by a brutal attack on innocent civilians 6 years ago today. Remember 9/11.