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I was sleeping when the phone rang. It was my then-husband's birthday, so I answered. Only one plane had hit at that time.

I tried to get ready for my first day volunteering at my son's first ever full week of school. Shortly I realized that that would be impossible -- no more slicing apples, or blowdrying my hair. Towers were falling. Falling!

I cried, in fits and bursts, for two months.

I still cry. Especially tonight.

As a friend said to me this evening, six years ago tonight hundreds of firefighters and police officers kissed their loved ones goodnight, never knowing the sacrifice they would offer up the next day.

I add that thousands of others -- secretaries, pencil-pushers, people just going to see other people... regular messy folks with regular messy lives... had no idea the symbols of innocence that they were about to become.

Tonight, this actual night, an American in uniform sleeps rather uncomfortably ready to do what must be done.

Never ever forget.

It was early and I was working from home for a corporation at the time. My wife had the Today Show on, and I saw the footage of the first tower burning. Of course everyone was still thinking just by chance it might have been an accident. Then the second plane entered the shot and that thought was shot to hell.

I called my wife in and we watched the footage over and over.

I may have teared up a little, but my focus was knowing that we were going to war, and the events of this day and their rememberances, would have to sustain our citizens until what we had to do had been done. I knew that would be iffy. And today we see just how iffy it is.

Victims of 09/11, I remember. In your honor I promise again this year to never forget. I promise to remain faithful to the troops and the CIC until this task is completed.

MSM, you are public enemy number one, and we’ve got your number. We know what we must never forget, and you best know what you must never forget.

This is your nation too. We demand you keep it in mind and act like it. Democrats, likewise...

The citizens of this nation will hold you accountable. Now all you have to do is carry on, but remember that we are watching. We don’t expect you to adopt our beliefs, but we do expect you to adopt our nation. It may pain you to act like it, but this nation is your nation. If it doesn’t survive, many of you and many of us will not.

Now, act as if you understand that, even if you can’t.

Hi Anna. Thanks for your thoughts.

I still cry. Especially tonight.

I am a man that was never given over to emotions. The typical strong silent type. If something was highly emotional I might shed a single tear, but nothing more.

That all changed on 9-11. I was watching at home on TV and I was very mad that this was happening. Then the first tower fell and I cried. No, I actually wept and I cried for most of that day watching it all unfold.

Now I cry all the time. I watch a chick flick - I cry. At my daughters wedding - I cried. When our grandchildren were born - I cried. Anything patriotic - makes me cry. In church - I cry. Just nearly any sentimentality makes me cry.

Many people say that something inside of them died that day, but for me something came to life. I no longer am emotionless. I tell my family every day how I feel. I express my love and make no apologies for doing so.

Some family and friends have suggested that I seek psychricatic help, that I cry too much. Call me a wussy if you will. I do not care. I think that God has blessed me through this in many ways. I also know that every time I cry that I will remember why - I know that as long as I still cry that I will never forget.

Beautifully put, Anna.

That morning, I brought my newborn daughter home from the hospital for the first time. We just got a delivery of a cookie basket that somebody sent, when my older brother called and couldn't believe I was unaware of what was going on. I thought I was just having a nice day off with my newly enlarged family and didn't have the television or radio on.

I spent most of the day hugging my then two-year-old son (who had no idea why I was so upset) and trying to contact various family members. My younger brother called me crying from a bar in NYC. He had a lot of business friends who worked in Cantor Fitzgerald and knew they were gone when he watched the building fall. He worked up the street from the WTC at the Travelers Building with my sister. She watched the second plane hit from the corporate lunchroom of her building. She walked down to the trading floor she runs and ordered everybody to get out and go home.

It took hours for my sister-in-law to reach my other brother. She worked in WTC 7 until that day.

The next few days were spent waiting to find out who I knew that died. I was pretty lucky. I have lots of friends who work in the financial markets downtown, so I didn't know if any of them were in those buildings that day. My friend Bob was treated and released at a hospital when a piece of glass sliced his back in the collapse. But no other close friends were harmed. My father's cousin, who I don't know well, was on the 101st floor of one of the towers when the first plane hit. He was an elevator mechanic who walked down, directing firefighters to groups of people he knew about and helping them find sources of water. He walked out about ten minutes before the building fell.

I worked a few years earlier for Marsh McLennan in midtown. I found out that after I left, they moved many in my department to the WTC. I knew a few people who died there, including an unbelievably friendly and skilled young guy I worked for. He was about to be made a director of the company. He left a wife and two kids.

It still hurts so much to remember that day. I can't thank the people who are bringing it back to those who support the ridiculous "cause" that brought that hell here. I take some solace everytime some jihadi douchebag gets blown up in the desert or some mountain cave. It's a start.

I rolled up to work at about 05:30 West coast time and the guys in the warehouse were listening to the radio. They told me a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I was thinking it was a small plane. I didn't see the first video until a few hours later in a client's office. It was jaw-dropping.

The shock and grief for the murdered and injured quickly translated into anger, which was unproductive, so I set to studying Islam, Middle East history and Arab culture, with a lot of other people out here who give a damn. FREE REPUBLIC was the hub, because I am still getting great book suggestions and resources through here, as can anyone else who follows the news at FR.

Still, some of the greatest memories were the pictures of the U.S. Navy destroyers and guided missile cruisers on the high seas heading for Afghanistan right afterwards. Once the Bush Administration decided to set up camp right in the heart of "Jihadistan" and we invaded Iraq, the aerial video of two U.S. M1A1 Abrams tanks, side by side on a bridge somewhere in country furiously engaging targets on both sides, represented somebody finally standing up and trying to do something with this 22 country cultural car wreck which is contemporary Islam and the Middle East/Arab world.

God bless and direct our fallible and gullible leaders in this monumental task ... bless and protect our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and their families. We are forever in their debt.

AMERICA AT WAR
At Salem the Soldier's Homepage ~
Islam, a Religion of Peace®? Some links...  by backhoe
Translated Pre-War IRAQ Documents  by jveritas
Mohammed, The Mad Poet Quoted....  by PsyOp
"PLAES DO NOT TOCH THE WAR"  by AnnaZ
The Clash of Ideologies - A Review

"...It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world." [FReeper Retief]

"...That the totalitarian force pitted against freedom wears a religious makes this civil war among mankind all the more difficult to engage. Loving freedom as we do, it seems reprehensible to deliberate against a religion. But this is no ordinary religion as it demands absolute obedience of all to their religion at the cost of freedom itself." [FReeper Backtothestreets]

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