9/11 - Never Forget

I know I can't...

Growing up in the shadows of those 2 buildings on the other side of the Hudson made that day 6 years ago that much more chilling.

Knowing that my college roommate worked in one of those towers made it that much more frightning. (He had changed jobs 2 months before and wasn't there thank goodness)

Knowing my friend had been in Boston just a week before was more than I could take...

Having to explain what happened to a bunch of 13 year olds on my soccer team who had been very close to another tragedy just 2 years earlier (Columbine) was un-nerving. These kids had seen 2 tragedies of unbelievable proportion in just 2 years and at such an early age and no one should even see just one like that! One of the kids was directly impacted because she knew the child of one of the pilots. All we did was talk for 90 minutes - no one could think about soccer. We were there for each other.

So many lives were touched and changed on that morning in NYC - people just don't realize how many...

The first time I went back east and drove north on the NJ Turnpike and didn't see the towers made me cry. I expected not to see them, but I didn't think I'd react that way. To see that big empty space in the skyline was too much.

Shortly after the tragedy, the Bergen Record offered the now-famous picture of the firefighters raising the flag at Ground Zero taken by Thomas E. Franklin for donations - naturally, I send my check and have that picture hanging in my home office. I will eventually get another to hang in my office after I get a new job. They are available for sale at allposters.com

That picture is a reminder to me and my way of never forgetting.

Don't you forget either.