Sunday, May 01, 2011

Americans One and All

My seven-year-old son quietly stepped into my basement apartment on the morning of September 11, 2001. His mom had already told me from upstairs that she had heard over NPR that an airplane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. As I turned on the TV, I watched (and he, unknown to me did too) as a second plane tore into the other tower.

As I turned around and realized he was with me, I immediately became the protective parent, trying to shield him from horror, in this case inexpressible horror.

My son drew a picture that said "It makes me sad when you attack my country."

The baseball season was suspended. When it did resume, my son and I were in the crowd, and when we had the chance to share our emotions, we all cried and sang "God Bless America."

We were all able to be patriots on that night.

I think that tonight we all owe a debt of gratitude not only to Barack Obama but to George W. Bush, both of whom pursued bin Laden to his grave. May this bastard NOT rest in peace. And as our President said, "God bless America."

-30-

1 comment:

Anjuli said...

Yes- bravo for all those involved in this operation! The American people are a resilient and a strong people- if they can just stay unified despite their differences, they will survive anything!