Tribute to the Day the World Changed

I wrote the following in my journal on September 11, 2006. I published it a few years ago, but it seems fitting to post it again today. My daughters were 4 and 5 the day the world changed, September 11, 2001.


Five years, and watching it again today I feel the same gut level horror, the heart-racing anxiety, the overwhelming sadness…
I remember the instinct to protect my girls-to not let them see the terrifying images, to remain calm in front of them, to keep conversation normal…keep everything normal. Barney and Blue’s Clues in the den…horror and madness on the screen in my bedroom.
Even as I protected them, did I have even an inkling of the world they would grow up in? Innocence forever shattered…
A world filled with images of men and women in uniform. Flags at half mast. I don’t know how old I was when I learned what half mast meant-it certainly wasn’t 5 or 6, or 9 or 10. Terror alerts, terrorists faces on TV, war updates.
“Mama, have they found Osama Bin Laden yet? Where is he?”
“Mama, is Saddam’s trial over?”
Little girls shouldn’t know such things…or should they?

The changed world they have grown up in has taught them…
-the meaning of liberty
-the preciousness of freedom

They know the Pledge of Allegiance and the all important phrase, “One nation under God”. The Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America.
They know what our nation was founded on, and why it is still important. They recognize the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They know what the 1st Amendment is, and what it isn’t.
They know about George Washington and John Adams and Abraham Lincoln. They recognize and know about George Bush and Dick Cheney…and Bill Clinton and John Kerry. They know why we support some but not others, and they don’t hesitate to say so. They pray, without prompting, for our nation and its leaders. They thank God for a Christian president.
They say goodbye to friends who leave to go around the world…some to protect freedom, some to preach it. They understand the absolute necessity of both. They welcome friends home from Iraq, and pray for one in Tel Aviv.
Perhaps the loss of innocence meant the birth of something greater…conviction.