9/11 and Hurricane Ike

I spent today watching the news about Hurricane Ike and preparing for the storm, thinking and remembering 9/11/01. I made up my mind to never forget and to honor that day and the significance of what it meant to me living in America. I think alot of people have kind of forgotten or have pushed it out of the minds since it has been some time. I see that in the way that the memorials were not televised and has been approached in the media today as an afterthought. The History Channel had some good programs on tonight about it though. Mom and I watched them. A lot of the footage was new and presented in a new way. That was refreshing. I learned alot from them. As I watched mesmerized, it was almost like I was reliving it all over again. I had the same butterflies in my stomach and panic welling up in my throat. The memory of that day that is most poignant for me is watching the video of when the first tower came crashing down and you see the wall of smoke rolling over the city and you hear the high pitched beeping. I never have forgotten that sound. To me it is an eerie sound and a sound that makes me very sad at the same time. That is the beeping of the fire fighters alert that they wore on their uniforms to aler that they were in danger. I cannot help but imagine that every beep symbolized one brave firefighter down under all the rubble. They were brave and courageous and admirable for putting themselves in the line of fire literally, to save others. Soon after, the brave and courageous became the fallen that I still and always will remember. God bless the men and women of 9/11/01.