9/11….just those words render feelings in all of us. Thoughts about that fateful day 8 years ago... 8 years, it sounds like a long time yet seems just like yesterday. I know we all have stories about where we were that day when we heard the news. I was somewhere between rocking babies and standing in line for my Starbucks, heading off to work and listening to the radio announcer say things like the Pentagon has been hit. I remember thinking this is the United States of America, planes do not fly into the Pentagon. I watched TV just like the rest of the world and my heart ached for those families. I felt a special connection to those women who lost husbands that day and all those little faces we saw on TV, the little ones who we came to know as the babies of 9/11. You see my little girl was just three months old. I wondered what would happen in her future and how the world would look. I wonder what happened to that America. The one where we all had flags flying and we supported our troops. I remember listening to George W. Bush and feeling proud to be an American. He brought this nation through one of the most difficult times in history. We are back to complacency. Congress can’t get anything done because of the division in parties, the economy is in the tank and Obama is not proving to be the Savior everyone hoped for. In spite of all of this I hope that America can reach down deep again and stand together. I hope that we will pray for our troops and remember those men and women not just fighting in Iraq right now but all of those that fight everyday of their life, those that fought in Vietnam, Korea, and WWII. All of the people that serve us every day and keep us safe. Today, my little girl is 8. She remembers nothing of 9/11. It is something that she will learn in history and I will tell her stories about where I was on that day when she is older. She doesn’t understand the threat of terrorism. She goes to school in a safe place and says the pledge of allegiance. She learns to sing the Star-Spangled Banner with sign language. She studies the Presidents and makes Abe Lincoln’s hat. She comes home and sleeps soundly at night. She knows that her great-grandfather fought in WWII and Korea and her grandfather fought in Vietnam. She knows her daddy was in the Navy. She is an all American girl. One day she will understand the sacrifice that they made and she will be thankful just like I am today.

~Scarlett