First, my apologies for the title. But it is the truth. Today there are so many people writing, posting, thinking about 9/11/2001, but almost in the same sentence they are asking, what time is the game?
We are reflecting, but only a moment. It makes me wonder, how little will we reflect next year...the next...the next. Nine years ago almost 3,000 people went to work, and any one of them would have loved to be able to talk about football right now, even the ones who hate it. But no,on that day they lost their lives as they carried through on the daily tasks. The were not doing extreme sports, they were not jumping out of airplanes where the chance of losing your life any second is part of the thrill. It was just before 9:00 on a work day so I imagine some, where sitting down at their desk drinking coffee,maybe going through their emails. This was before Farmville on facebook, so maybe they were actually checking work email first thing and not the status of their virtual crops.
On that day there were people running late for work, perhaps on the subway looking at their watches and cussing under their breath. Little did they know that that day, they were the lucky ones because they were not at their desks drinking coffee yet.
Firefighter and policemen were preparing to step into bravery as they do every day, but none of them had any idea of what their day would be like,and you know, for those men and women in uniform, i dare say that many of them would not have changed their actions at all if they were able to save at least one person, even if it meant their death.
Military were here and abroad, carrying out orders of bravery too, but they too did not have any idea of how much their life was going to change due to actions of 19 men in a matter of less than an hour. 19 men. . .19 men boarded airplanes at the orders of their extremist group and they took the lives of thousands and changed the lives of millions.
Those of you gathered around watching football, and believe me I am a big fan of football, be thankful that today you can do this, and so many can't that should still be alive today. And not just those 3,000, but also the service men and women that gathered arms, reinlisted, and went to defend our country and lost their lives on the battle field. Those of you that are sad for them, be sad honor them, but at the same time understand that many of them were there because they chose to be there. They signed up to protect this country. They signed up so that on Saturday we could watch two colleges battle it out, cheer for whatever team we wanted, and go on with our lives without being threatened by terrorist. It is because of those men and women that we are not all in bombshelters, it is because those men and women are doing their job and doing it well.
Watch,football, play farmville, blog, but understand every second of it,and the freedom to do it is all still ourse because there are some extremely brave people in this world. That in the fact of 9/11 stood up and faught for us.
We all are anti-war and want our troops to come home. Every military man and woman that I have talked to is wanting to reinlist again and again, because they see the dangers out there and they want to protect us. Rather you support the war or not, support them, and honor them for their bravery.
When you paint your bodies your favorite school colors and drink your beer, remember that men and women put on their military uniforms and fought not for a trophy, not for pride, not for the crowd the cheer or to boo, but rather for the freedoms for us to do all of that and more!