Today is just a day on the farm. We still have 17 days till we get on that bird and fly across the ocean to a whole other continent. I am looking forward to the adventure but for some reason dreading customs. I am guessing it's because I've never done it before. The fear of the unknown.
Tomorrow we are heading to Atlantic Beach. It's probably my favorite beach in North Carolina. We are planning on souvenir shopping then laying on the beach for 6 hours. My legs are going to burn up. I have an awesome base tan on my arms/shoulders/face. My legs are very pale. After being burnt up quite nicely we are going to do a ghost walk. None of us have ever been on one. I don't know what to expect but if anywhere is haunted it's the South. That particular area is where Blackbeard lived. So there's gotta be pirates and "aye, walk the plank me matey!" victims about.
Just a reminder. Tomorrow is September 11th. In my generation...in my Mom's generation...this is the worst attack on American soil. Only comparable to Pearl Harbor. But even that attack, while horrible, wasn't the same. It wasn't CONUS. It didn't kill 2,752 civilians. It didn't even kill that many Service Members. Pearl Harbor killed 2,400 people total, 68 civilians. The ensuing war killed 418,500 Americans. The wars stemming from September 11th have (so far) killed the 2,752 ON Sept 11th and 5,697. That is a dramatically lower number probably due to technological advances. Losing civilians vs soldiers doesn't make them more or less important but as the wife of a career soldier...well soldiers sign on knowing the risks. Thousands of New Yorkers didn't go to work and sign a contract saying "I might be a war casualty". No one boarded the airplanes thinking they'd be blown up, essentially. Although I will allow that flying presents a higher hazard level than simply going to work we still don't have many plane crashes in a year and usually even fewer large planes.
That's just the facts. The reality of it all is that it devastated our entire nation. People with no ties to New York cried for days. People in other countries were heartbroken for us. The thought of all of the loss is simply too much for most people to bear. Even now, 9 years later, all I want to do is cry. If I see the footage it takes me back to that day in 2001 when I woke up to the news. I can't remember it as if it were yesterday. Until the day I die I will remember those moments. Or until the day the dementia sets in, which ever happens first. Sometimes I wonder if that's what hell is like. Watching people so desperate and scared that they would rather leap to their death than burn to death. Watching the person you worked with before you ran to Starbucks, people you know, go up in flames. Watching people you've never met in a state you've never been to and knowing that someone loves them is in agonizing pain from loss. Some people were in agonizing pain from being in/near intense heat. People were trapped, still alive but facing uncertainty. The terror, the fear, the pain. It's too much to bear.
Never forget. Don't let your children forget, even if they were less than 2 weeks old like my daughter was at the time of the attack. Don't forget our soldiers still fighting to this day.
Never forget.
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