Thank I will NEVER forget!  September 11,  2001
     This day started out a happy one!  It was my son's 6th birthday. I was suppose to bake cupcakes to take to his kindergarten class but the school was in lock down and I couldn't drag myself from those awful images on the television set.  I just kept thinking to myself, how could this happen?  Why did this happen?  Who could really be that cruel to do something so bad?  I am ashamed to say that before that dreadful day I had never heard of the Taliban, or Usama Bin Laden.  I had no clue that we were hated that much.  Boy what a rude awakening I had!
     I still watch everything I can about the tragedy and I listen to the families of the people that were lost in the WTC.  I listen to the stories of those that escaped......and most every person that ran from the building said one common thing.  One thing that just rings in my brain time  and time again and once again I wonder, How?  Why?  The thing that most people say that made it out of the buildings is:  I was running out BUT THEY WERE RUNNING IN .    They being the firefighters and the police officers that answered the call.  They had no idea that building they were running into was going to come down and even if they did they didn't know when and they still would have gone in and "They" would say "We aren't heros, we were just doing our jobs".  But they are heros!  In my eyes it takes someone special to take the risks that the firefighters take day in and day out.  What a special breed of people those firefighters.  I always knew they had a dangerous job, but I never even thought about them running the opposite direction of "safety".  They run right into the danger to save another human being.  Not looking at the persons race, color, gender or social background.  Not caring if the person they are saving is a good or bad person....just knowing that they need help and the rescuer is going to help or die trying...just because "I was doing my job".
     Well there are no words to ever tell of my gratitude.  There is no real way to show how thankful I am that there are people like that in this world.  In the first few weeks I would go to bed and pray that they would find one person, just one person to give the searchers some hope, just a little bit of hope to go on.  But no more people were found alive but I don't think hope was ever lost.   I am proud to be from this wonderful country!  I am proud to call America home.  I tell my children to thank God everyday for being born in such a great place and if you don't believe it is such a great place then sit down and let me tell you why I think it is great!  I am free,  I am free to write this note on the internet,  I am free to be who I choose to be.  I am free to buy a house and free to barbecue outside my backdoor. I am free to go to church and to speak of God,  Free to keep the Holy Bible by my bedside and free to read from it at any time that I choose.  I am free to go to school, then go back and learn more...I am free to learn as much as my brain can absorb.  I am free to shop at any store that I want.  I am free to have as many children that I want or none at all.  I am free to choose which Doctor I want to see. I am free to choose which bank I will use.  I am free to live my life how I want.  I could go on and on but I hope you understand what I am saying.
     This is getting lengthy but I just wanted to say how I felt.
 This tragedy has affected me in so many ways.   I look at people as I pass by them in a store or on the street, wondering if they are good or bad.  I look at every airplane that crosses over my house.  I pray every night for our leaders to have the knowledge to do what is needed and the strength to carry the tasks out.  I pray for the people who lost people and I pray for the workers that are trying to recover and clean up at Ground zero.  I keep up with what is going on in the news and try to learn all I can about what is going on in the world.
My heart is broken but I still believe!  I belive that everything will get better,  it will never be the same but it will get better!  Thanks for taking the time to read this.

                                                                                        God Bless,  Lu Ann