[NFB_of_Georgia] 911 message:

[charleseblack at att.net]

On this day, we remember 9/11. Where were you on that infamous day? Where
are you now? Is the feeling of patriotism in you? Let us reflect and
regurgitate on these questions together. Let us take lessons from the past
and allow them to guide our future.

 

On 9/11, I was in college, trying to better my life and improve my position
in American society. I was in the computer lab, doing homework. Then, the
unthinkable happened, on tv, I saw one of the twin towers fall. I stood
there in amazement. Who would dare attack our country? 

 

It did not even occur to me that it would be another nation state. Then,
another tower fell before my eyes. Anger flared up in me, a feeling of
helpful helplessness was a thought in my mind. Whoever had done this had to
pay, was all I could think. As a nation, we heard who had done this and
vowed that their cost would be worse than our sacrifice. Our military was
mobilized with one thought, they must pay. In that time period, we all had
one mind set, we all had one goal, take out those who dared to attack us
just because we were different.

 

Today, our nation is so divided. Each person is out for their selves. Each
person has their own goals. When I reflect on what would happen today if
such a traumatic event occurred, I can see each person having their own
ideas about how we would react as a nation. Half would want to attack the
perpetrators while the other half would be saying that we deserved the
transgression. Some would be saying that the glass was half full while
others would be saying it was half empty. There are things that we can agree
on while there are things we will never agree on. Why do we not go silently
into the night and understand that there are things that we will disagree
on, but we can live together.

 

Let us take this day and decide to live together while being different. Let
us take our similarities in direction and walk together. Events of the past
tell us that there are people ready to destroy our way of life. Let us not
help them by destroying it for them. Like the gentleman on that flight said
from Pennsylvania 19 years ago when the terrorists high jacked their plain,
"let's roll" and get behind our government.

 

Charles Black