Patriot's Day

This time of year has a very special place in my heart. There is hardly anyone in the United States that doesn't remember the minute by minute replay in their minds of what happened on that day in 2001. September 11th is now known as Patriot Day and I am very proud to say that I honor that day, not just for those who died in the towers, or the Pennsylvania field, or even in the Pentagon, but for every single American who today can say that they are a Patriot.
One thing that stands out most in my mind that day and for days to come after was how blue the sky was and how quiet it seemed. How the planes stopped flying and it just seemed like the world was holding its breath. I see pictures from that day and it all comes rushing back like it has just happened.
Another thing that will forever hold a memory for me on that day is that when I got home from that long, long day at work that my answering machine was full of messages, one right after the other, from my children telling me that they were okay and not to worry about them. I had family up in Cleveland where the one plane had ended up circling. I had boys in Dayton right beside Wright Pat Air Force Base where it was rumoreed that it had also been hit. But standing there in my kitchen, hearing their sweet voices on that machine trying to reasure ME that the world would be okay, I thought of all those people who would never again hear the music of their loved ones voices and I cried for each and everyone of them. It still makes me mad to think that some horrible men could come on our soil and do this to US!
But the best memory of those days was how we as a country came together to shove thier terrorism down their throats. We stood together as a nation, as a family, as ONE! Everywhere that you looked there were flags, not just on buildings or on a pole, but on people and on their homes. Everyone was wearing red, white, and blue. We were proud of what we stood up against and shook our fists in their faces.
We are once again getting back to what we were before. We have lost some of that sense of pride in ourselves and in each other. We are starting to get complacent in our everyday happenings and we are opening ourselves to more of the same if we don't watch it.
Pick up those flags and wave them again. Don't wait for the 4th of July, or the Olympics, or an election to show that you are Patriotic; we must be this way each and every day. Hold your heads high and smile at your neighbors; don't stare down at your feet. Say thank you to anyone serving our country, be it politicians, fire men and women, police personnel, Red Cross Workers, missionaries, or whoever, but most especially our service men and women. Say thank you and mean it! We need to be glad that we are in a country where no job is meaningless and that we all need each other to survive.
Thank you for the chance to write this. Thank you America for being there always for all of us. I will always wave your flag. I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!!