My message for the fifth anniversary of that horrible day… 

To all my dearest friends and family,

September 11, 2001 - Never forget!

On this, the fifth anniversary of the day that changed our country, I feel compelled to write another message like I write for Veterans Day and Memorial Day.  I wrote such a message on the first anniversary of 9/11 and it was probably the most difficult email I had ever written. 

Never before in my lifetime have I experienced a day such as that.  To witness our nation under attack and the death of 2,973 of my fellow countrymen was almost too much to bear.  Today, as I write this message, I find the task no easier.  I re-read my message from that first anniversary and find much of it still very fitting as it accurately reflected the emotions of that day.  Today I offer an updated version of that same one. 

What could I possibly have to say on the five year anniversary of the murders of nearly three thousand of my fellow Americans? What would I say? How could I even come close to putting down in words the feelings I have? I am just thankful that my kids were too young to even know what was going on that day. I couldn’t explain it to myself, let alone a child.  Today my kids are old enough to be more aware of the world around them and I know that at some point I will have to talk to them about that day.  Five years removed, I still have no idea what I will say. 

I remember sitting there that horrible morning, crowded around a little 5″ television with my coworkers watching the events as they played out.  The gravity of the situation slowly sank in over the next couple of hours.  One plane striking the World Trade Center, then a second.  Yet another hit the Pentagon.  One goes down in a field in Pennsylvania.  It seemed as if the world had run amok. 

I remember going to my office, shutting the door, sitting at my desk and putting my head in my hands and crying.  The emotions were nothing like I had experienced in my life.  Our company closed early that day and at home I sat waiting for my wife and son to come home – it seemed like an eternity. When they arrived, before they even got out of the car my wife and I embraced and cried.

Like many Americans, we went to church that evening. No mass was held, just silent prayer time to be alone with God. As I came out of the church carrying my son, I stood in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary and wept – in my mind’s eye I am sure I saw Her, her Son and our Father weeping as well. Bobby, then less than a year and a half old, looked at me with a rather worried look and kissed me.  Even at that young, tender age, a child can be so empathic to the emotions of those around them. 

The tears rushed forth then I began to tense up; the anger began to set in…. To think that in an instant someone could take him from me or me from him. To think that I could never see my (then) unborn daughter’s face. To leave for work one day in a rush not taking the time to properly say goodbye and never be given the chance to do so. I thought of the families who lost their loved ones that day and wished those that were responsible roast in Hell.

I watched the President of this Great Nation address us that night, with tears in his eyes, trying to reassure a country shaken.

“These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong.

“A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

“America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining. ”

I watched, and cried, as our National Anthem was played across this country and across the world at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of Paris, and at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. I watched the U.S. Congress stand on the steps of the Capitol Building and sing God Bless America.  We were united; indeed the world was united. 

We heard the stories of the heroes of that day…

The firemen and police officers who rushed to the scene and helped those in need, many sacrificing their own lives in the process. The office workers who helped their friends and co-workers down dozens and dozens of flights of stairs. The steel workers who helped to search the rubble of the buildings their fathers had built. The heroes on United Flight 93 who with the simple words, “Let’s roll,” battled their hijackers and ultimately sacrificed their own lives to save countless others on the ground. The soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who dragged their compatriot’s bodies from the rubble of the Pentagon.

History will be the ultimate judge of our actions that day and the time since. Certainly September 11, 2001 will be remembered as one of the saddest days in our history but it is my sincerest wish that it will also be remembered as one of this country’s proudest.

Yes, this nation was bloodied as we have never been before. But, there is a world of difference between making us bloody, and making us fall. Japan was taught this lesson almost 65 years ago now, the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought a battle to our shores with such monumental pain.

When roused, we are righteous in our courage, terrible in force. When provoked, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length in the pursuit of justice. Admiral Yamamoto of the Japanese Imperial Navy, immediately after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, is quoted as having said, “We have awakened a sleeping giant and have instilled in him a terrible resolve.” 

For a time we were indeed a giant awakened and sought to punish those that would do us harm.  In the days, weeks and months immediately following 9/11, our country was bathed in a renewed spirit of patriotism as we mourned the incredible losses and stood shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism. 

Sadly, those feelings seem to have all but disappeared and five years later we seem so removed from that day.  The fighting, the debate and blaming over that day and our country’s actions since then now serve only to sully the memories of the heroics of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice that day and those that continue to carry the battle forward today. 

The great British statesman Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”  As the debate will assuredly continue for years to come, are we to sit and do nothing and wait for the battle to be brought to our shores again?  Or, do we do as our forefathers have always done – as we did five years ago – and stand up against tyranny and evil no matter where it is?    

Our patriotism pulled us through those trying times and it shouldn’t take another attack to galvanize us in solidarity.  Today let us stand together to remember the victims of that horrible day.  Let us stand together and pay tribute to the lives of the thousands of men and women that have carried the battle forth since then and paid the ultimate sacrifice.  Let us stand together and honor the hundreds of thousands who wear our nation’s uniforms protecting us.  Let us never forget so that we and our children will never experience another day like 9/11.  NEVER FORGET! 

God bless you all and God bless America!

          Tony

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