15 Years Later: September 11, 2001 Never Forget

 

It has been fifteen years since September 11, 2001 and the events that followed. The United States of America has not forgotten the agony and pain that was felt all across the nation that day, and just about every person who was alive then can tell you where they were on that Tuesday when they heard the news about what was happening. For me, I remember being in the living room and watching the news on the television with my mom, not fully understanding what was happening, but knowing that what was happening was not good.

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to the Brick Universe convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but more on that at a later time. Right now, I want to highlight something I saw there, two breathtaking models. One of the Twin Towers and the other of One World Trade Center both created by Rocco Buttliere. These LEGO models were a reminder to me of the trials that the United States has gone through as a nation, throughout history, on September 11, 2001, and even in recent times. Yet despite the many trials and struggles we have experienced, the United States has come through, not because we are better, not because we are stronger, but because we have turned to and trusted in God. On the fifteenth anniversary of this fateful day, my thoughts and prayers are with the survivors of 9/11and their families, the first responders who responded during and after the planes struck as well as with their families, with the many families who lost loved ones, and with the service men and women and their families who make tremendous sacrifices so that we can live in a free country. To all of you I want to say a deep and heartfelt "Thank you". I will never know the pain of your loss or the sacrifices that you and your loved ones have made.

 

As we remember the events of September 11, 2001 and the effect they have had on this nation, let us also remember that we are "One Nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all." (4 United States Code §4. Pledge of allegiance to the flag; manner of delivery) Let us not forget the principles that our Founding Fathers stood for, and founded this country upon, among them that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." (The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, July 4, 1776). Let us come together to stand for these principles which our Founding Fathers, and so many after them, have stood for, and even died for so that we might enjoy living under these principles now.