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Thank you for your stories...

I live in Northern Cal, and my radio alarm went off at 7:30 AM, always tuned to KSFO (conservative ABC affiliate). I didn't hear Lee and Mel - I heard Peter Jennings say that the second tower had just fallen. I still remember lying there, still sideways on the pillow, thinking, "WHAT?!!" Then turned to Fox News in my room - my then 9 year old son was asleep still. I saw the footage, read the crawls frantically, and was just in a state of shock.

I had to bring my son to school - it was not cancelled - and didn't want him to see all that just yet right before I brought him to school. He's quite perceptive, and I knew we'd deal with it later. So I turned the Cartoon Network on in the living room before I woke him up, made his cereal, and we got ready.

Funny thing, he was kind of crabby that morning, but he got a bigger hug than usual as I dropped him off. I drove all the way to work (30 miles) at 55 mph - very unusual for me - listening to Melanie Morgan read a news update that one of the hijacked planes was headed for San Francisco. That was Flight 93. As I looked around at the other drivers, they were all in kind of a fugue state. No one drove very fast. It was a atately procession down the freeway.

When I finally made it to the office, I finally cried - hard - and got a big hug from my friend whom I work with. Of course, we got nothing done that day. Spent the day with the TV on, just horrified at Petah Jennings and amazed to see that Dan Rather was slightly more tolerable than usual. Then, finally, the local Fox station fed Fox News for the rest of the day, and that was much better.

When I picked my son up, he asked me what had happened, because the teachers were really upset, and people kept coming into the classroom to whisper messages to the teacher. So, I told him what happened, and we went home to what Fox. He informed me that he wanted to go to New York so he could help find people. My heart just about burst.

We didn't watch a lot of coverage when he was awake, but once he got to sleep, I was glued to Fox and FR until about 2 - 3 AM every night for weeks. I got very little sleep, and as I got my son to sleep, I stayed and watched him for a long time, praying that he would be able to grow up and live his life.

Those moments are still fresh when I think about them.

Thank God for Free Republic ... and for our President. I suspect we may never know what he helped avert.

What a beautiful story. Children as so perseptive and have such innocent wisdom. The Friday after the attacks, the National Day of Prayer, my best friend, her hubby, little girl (who was 3 at the time), and I drove into Grand Rapids to drop off money at a donation drive, and later light candles. On our way, the 3 year old said, 'are the bad men going to try and get us? I'm scared.' It was the most innocent and geuine thing.

I have so much respect for parents who showed/explained to their children the events of that day. The 3 year old heard about it from her mom, and her mom explained it in only terms that a 3 year old could understand- that bad people, people who don't like us, hurt and made a lot of people sad on 9-11.

To the parents out there, God bless you. I believe that this generation of young children will be one of the most patriotic and compassionate generations we've ever seen.