Never Ever Forget

by Steve Dunford

It is hard for me to believe that September 11th was 16 years ago today.  There kids that are freshmen and sophomores in High School now were not even born yet.

My son is in college and he was three at the time.  He was sitting in the floor playing with blocks when I turned this new upstart cable station called Fox News when the second plane hit the second tower.

It was something that I have not witnessed in at the time the 31 years that I have spent on this earth, America was attacked on its own soil.

Over the years, I have told the story of that day.  It seems like most of us have similar stories.  We will never forget where we first heard or saw the planes hit the towers.

It was a day of brokenness, fear, and panic.  None of us knew what was going to take place next.  I was glued to the TV until it was time to go to work that afternoon, in which I left two hours early, and ended up getting to Marion and hour and a half late.

In the days afterwards people forgot their differences.  We were all Americans.  There was an era of great kindness among people.  Temporarily, it became “politically correct to say” God Bless America.

Since then, I have not been the same.  I appreciated the freedom that I always had as an American, but from that day forward there has been a deeper love for this country instilled in me.  Most of the times when I hear the National Anthem played, I wipe a tear.

Al Queda joyfully took responsibility for destroying the World Trade Center, taking the lives of 3,000 office workers and firefighters, police, and emergency personnel that responded.  The threat of Al Queda had rolled over into ISIS being our biggest terror threat.

From different roles, I run across a lot of young people in life.  It breaks my heart the conspiracy theory that 9-11 was an inside job of the Bush administration.  It also breaks my heart anytime an NFL player kneels on the sideline, rides an exercise bike, or any other act to disrespect the flag, while the National Anthem is played.  No, I am not one to boycott the NFL for the actions of a few, but the ones in protest need to realize they are in a country that gives them the opportunity to make millions to play a game.

There were so many heroes on that day, the NYPD and the NYFD, the air traffic controllers, every day people helping each other, and most of all, the ones that gave their lives on United Flight 93.  If the terrorists would have taken off the dome of the Capitol building, we would have been a weakened government in chaos for a while.

Since that day, there have been some positives come out of it.  Overall, I believe we are more of a patriotic nation.  There has always been a respect for the military, but it has been strengthened.  Even though there are elements in society that trash law enforcement, Fire, Police and EMS workers are getting the praise and recognition they deserve.

Right now we have emergency workers in Florida that will be assessing the damage today.  There are several lineman either already there or on their way to Florida to help restore power.  There are volunteers from this region as we speak in Houston, ministering to the needs of hurting people today.

Never ever forget, the freedoms we enjoy.  There is a cost of freedom though.  Remember the ones that gave their lives on a battlefield, so we can go about our everyday lives today.

Most of all remember someone who shed their blood on a cross so that we can have freedom though him today.

God Bless America.