Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer is asking everyone to remember 9/11 by talking about where we were on that day 5 years ago.

The morning of September 11, 2001, started pretty much like all of my pre-child mornings started. I woke up probably a little after 8:00 (oh those were the days), started reading the newspaper, and had a little caffeine in the form of a Coke. Pre-child, I was never one to turn on the T.V. first thing in the morning because honestly, I don’t like to deal with all the cheerful people quite that early.

A little after 9:00, I flipped on the T.V. to see what Kelly and Regis were up to and I suddenly became aware that the whole world had changed in an instant. I saw smoke and plane crashes and panic and incredible devastation. No one was cheery on this morning, everyone was stunned.

P and I both work from home, so he was in the office. I called him in and said, “Have you seen this?”. We spent the next hours glued to the T.V. and when the towers fell, it literally took my breath away. Shocked, outraged, stunned. We immediately thought about one of P’s best friends from childhood who worked in the World Trade Center. As it turns out, he hadn’t gone to work that day but we didn’t know that until much later.

P called one of his friends who had served in Special Forces and asked him his thoughts. Who did this? Will there be more? And the friend told us we might want to think about stocking up on some things like drinking water, canned goods, etc. because who knew what else would happen over the next few days. It was the first time we felt vulnerable living in the United States.

I remember that Gulley was about 5 months pregnant at the time and was supposed to catch a flight to Illinois that morning, but realized that no one was going to be flying anywhere. All of sudden the thought of bringing a new baby into the world began to look a little different. What kind of a world are we living in now? Are we safe?

Five years later the events of that day are still surreal. The United States of America was under attack on our own soil. We never saw it coming.

The days that followed were so sad, but yet hopeful. There was a unity among Americans, a return to patriotism. It was like for a moment the nation turned its eyes back to God and the original ideals of our founding fathers, but sadly it was short lived.

We find ourselves today as a nation divided. I think somewhere along the way, people forgot what the fight is for. President Bush said from the beginning that this would be a long battle because it’s a different kind of enemy. Terrorists aren’t contained in one country, look what happened in London a few weeks ago. They walk among us.

Anyone who thinks this is an enemy that can be reasoned with or bargained with is a fool. These people want to destroy us for no other reason than we’re American. And make no mistake, if they had the capability, they would destroy us. Human life is of no value to them, not even their own life is of value. I think as Americans we can’t fully comprehend this level of evil.

Are there things we could have done better? Sure, our leaders aren’t infallible. But 5 years later, they have kept us safe. They have foiled terrorist plots that we’ve heard about and probably others that never made the news. We must press on because this enemy isn’t going away.

So to our soldiers fighting this war, our policemen and firemen and everyone else who stands in the gap for us I say thank you and yes, I remember. May God bless America.