I Could Just Cry.....

all over again. 9/11....a date we will always remember. It's one of those dates in history where you'll always remember where you were when it happened. In my lifetime, there have been a few of those....the day JFK was shot, the day man first walked on the moon, the day Princess Diana died and the date we found out JFK, Jr. was killed in a plane crash. I know others of my era will probably remember where they were when they found out Marilyn Monroe was found dead and the same with Elvis Presley, but I don't remember those two.

I look at this picture of the New York Harbor, with the Statue of Liberty looking over towards the burning towers, and it makes me want to scream. That statue represents a democracy where people are free from tyranny and should be free from terrorism at the same time. It's the symbol of liberty and freedom and if it was alive, she would have been crying on this day along with the rest of the world.

I remember driving into New York a few days before the attack to see one of the US Open matches at Flushing Meadows Park. Pat was with me at the time and I decided to drive in via the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. I said to her that I was going to show her a view of Manhattan that she had never seen before. Coming in that way, you see the tip of downtown Manhattan with the World Trade Center looming before you. To me, this is the best view of the city that you will ever see. She was amazed by its beauty. A few days later, she was so glad that she got to see the city this way. Little did we know, on that day, that it was the last time we would ever get to view it again.

What I do remember about 9/11 is feeling a great sadness on that day knowing that the life as I knew it would definitely change as would the lives of my children. I always felt safe in this country because my husband always told me that we were protected on both sides by water. I now knew he was wrong. No one is safe when there are crazy people in this world.

Having lived in New York for the first 36 years of my life, I, along with many other New Yorkers, felt a kinship with these towers. Those of us who worked in the city watched these buildings go up and now here we were watching them go down. I celebrated my 40th birthday in one of those buildings when we had dinner at Windows Of The World. It's something I'll never forget and something I'll never get to do again. Today on MSNBC, they had a show "9/11 As It Happened" and it's the live broadcast of The Today show from the minute the first plane hit. Watching it, I had that same sick feeling in my stomach as I did seven years ago. I remember seeing that second plane coming and thinking how crazy they were to let another plane fly that close to the WTC right after the first tower had been hit. Oh, how naive we all were then. At that time, all of the broadcasters were thinking that the first plane was just a mistake and was just a small commuter plane that accidentally crashed into the tower.

So much has changed in the world since that day. We can never really feel safe again. Thankfully, nothing else has happened here since that day but the worry still exists that it can happen again at any time.

I chose a picture of the twin beams of light marking the site of the World Trade Center as my blog photo, even though these beams are not at the exact site. The title Terra Firma (on solid ground) is my thought that perhaps we are now back on solid ground after this horrific catastrophe. Afterall, we are Americans and are known as survivors. I want to be hopeful that they won't come back and hurt anyone else. I want to be sure that our country is always ready for an attack like the one we experienced on that day. I just want to know that my kids and my grandchildren (Brady, that's you) will live in a safe country. When I think about what's the most important thing to me in the upcoming elections, that is it......just to be safe.

I would be remiss on this day if I didn't acknowledge those great New York City policemen and fireman who were the real heroes of the day....giving their lives to save others. President Roosevelt once said that the bombing of Pearl Harbor would always be a day that would live in infamy. I wasn't alive for that day so 9/11 will always be my day that will live in infamy. And the mastermind of this event still lives....go figure. We should send those NYC cops to find Bin Laden. Now that's something I'd pay to see.