I was driving to work at JSC when the news of the first crash was reported on the radio. I got into the office just as news of the second plane hitting the other tower was being reported. I went to the Building 30 lobby, the entrance to the Mission Control Center, where there is a television mounted up high, and stood with a number of folks who were taking in the televised reports. As the images were played over and over again, it occurred to me that the people who did this were attacking icons of American superiority. And there I was with these other folks, standing in the lobby of one of those icons. I felt a kind of fear I don’t think I’d ever felt before. Not terrifying, not paralyzing, not even very pronounced in terms of symptoms. But very deep and very unsettling. Perhaps it was the fear that comes when you realize that your world will never be the same again, and you’re unsure just what it will be.
I drew a lot of strength from the way the country responded, though. For a time we left all politics behind and came together as Americans. We gathered in our churches to pray together. We set aside differences and focused on the well-being of the country together as one people.
And God bless President George W. Bush. The President, having suddenly been thrust into one of the most difficult positions a leader ever could be in, handled the crisis and so much that followed with strength, conviction, intelligence, and passion. He was exactly the leader that America needed in that hour, and in the days, months, and years that followed. I disagreed with the President on some issues. But on national security, on keeping America safe, on keeping our national word to respond decisively and justly without compromise, he was dead on.
In a way it’s disappointing that political tenor of the country has become so rancorous in the decade since 9/11. Yet at the same time, perhaps it is because we remain free, because we remain strong, because we remain safe, that we can afford to play our stupid political games, even to the point of electing an unqualified amateur because we were so darned eager to elected a black president, no matter who it was. ;)
Okay, that was a cheap shot, but I’m convinced that had we still been suffering terrorist attacks running up to 2008, McCain would’ve slaughtered Obama at the polls.
So perhaps, just perhaps, there’s something to be celebrated in our partisan bickering and heated political debate. We can celebrate that we are free enough, strong enough, and safe enough to be able to fight amongst ourselves!
God bless America. And thank you, God, for having blessed America so much.
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Where were you when the world changed? Remembering 9-11-2001
I was driving to work at JSC when the news of the first crash was reported on the radio. I got into the office just as news of the second plane hitting the other tower was being reported. I went to the Building 30 lobby, the entrance to the Mission Control Center, where there is a television mounted up high, and stood with a number of folks who were taking in the televised reports. As the images were played over and over again, it occurred to me that the people who did this were attacking icons of American superiority. And there I was with these other folks, standing in the lobby of one of those icons. I felt a kind of fear I don’t think I’d ever felt before. Not terrifying, not paralyzing, not even very pronounced in terms of symptoms. But very deep and very unsettling. Perhaps it was the fear that comes when you realize that your world will never be the same again, and you’re unsure just what it will be.
I drew a lot of strength from the way the country responded, though. For a time we left all politics behind and came together as Americans. We gathered in our churches to pray together. We set aside differences and focused on the well-being of the country together as one people.
And God bless President George W. Bush. The President, having suddenly been thrust into one of the most difficult positions a leader ever could be in, handled the crisis and so much that followed with strength, conviction, intelligence, and passion. He was exactly the leader that America needed in that hour, and in the days, months, and years that followed. I disagreed with the President on some issues. But on national security, on keeping America safe, on keeping our national word to respond decisively and justly without compromise, he was dead on.
In a way it’s disappointing that political tenor of the country has become so rancorous in the decade since 9/11. Yet at the same time, perhaps it is because we remain free, because we remain strong, because we remain safe, that we can afford to play our stupid political games, even to the point of electing an unqualified amateur because we were so darned eager to elected a black president, no matter who it was. ;)
Okay, that was a cheap shot, but I’m convinced that had we still been suffering terrorist attacks running up to 2008, McCain would’ve slaughtered Obama at the polls.
So perhaps, just perhaps, there’s something to be celebrated in our partisan bickering and heated political debate. We can celebrate that we are free enough, strong enough, and safe enough to be able to fight amongst ourselves!
God bless America. And thank you, God, for having blessed America so much.