American Tragedy Remembering the Americans who lost their lives in the American Tragedy in New York and Washington on Tuesday, September 11 2001. Stand strong, American will prevail over cowardly terrorism. God bless America.

9-11-01: Day of Terror I rarely watch the news, so I didn't know anything was happening. I was at work at 8:00 am on that grave Tuesday morning. I called the VW dealer to make a car appointment, and I began work. My boss, Roger told me he had a dentist appointment and would be in later, and I worked away on the computer like I would on any ordinary Tuesday. Roger came in around 10:00 am and said "Did you hear what happened?"

"No." I replied. "There was a terrorist attack; they crashed a plane into the World Trade Center." At first it didn't shock me very much. I guess I got so used to hearing about terrorist attacks, the magnitude of what happened didn't hit me at first. "Really." I said calmly.

Then we turned on the radios and began looking up news web sites to find out what was going on. The news came trickling in, and the shock and horror increased in our small office that houses only Roger and I. "Another plane hit the other tower, one hit the Pentagon." Now, I was in complete shock and expecting attacks across the country throughout the day. I tried deseratly to load news web sites, but none of them would load: cnn, abc, msn, all were frozen as the country scrambled to figure out what was going on, the web sites were surely overflowed with traffic. My coffee cup started emtying faster.

My girlfriend, Melissa then called just awaking calling to say hi. She spoke as if she did not know what was going on, so I told her. "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God." She said faster and faster and with more shock each time she said it realizing what was happening. She quickly turned on the television and watched the news in horror.

I went outside to have a much needed cigarette, and I looked up at the sky as I tried to call my brother in Lexington, KY. My Dad travels a lot in his job and my Mom and sister were going to Florida on Tuesday. I was immediately worried for my family, escpecially my Dad. I watched the sky as I called my brother trying to find out if he knew where Dad was. I kept calling over and over, but the phone would not connect. "The phone lines were bogged down too." I thought as I became more and more horrified realizing this was real and we were really under attack. My Dad finally answered the phone, and my entire family was held up at my brother's house in Lexington, KY. I was happy feeling they were all safe there.

I was lucky that none of my family members or friendss were taken in the horrible tragedy, and I can only imagine the pain the people that have lost loved ones are feeling now; my heart pours out to all of them.

9-14-01 America Unites I am very happy about the incredible amount of support the nation and world has for the United States government right now. I hate what happened, but I myself feel more patriotic then I ever have before. American flags here in New Beford, MA hang proudly on nearly every overpass, and many of them have groups of patriots standing behind them waving. I proudly wave to them and smile. I heard the U.S. military overflowed with young people racing to join up. I have only read of this type of patriotic support for America in World War 1 and 2 when the U.S. people proudly went off to fight for our freedom. I myself am ready to go fight too. I am ready along with the entire United States of America for a war to destroy the horrible rodent terrorists that want to hurt us and our way of life. God Bless America, and let's go get em!

9-15-01 Patriotism Like Never Before Last night I drove to Melissa's house at about 8pm. It was darker than usual and kind of eerie out; I'm sure it was the storm, but it seemed like something else, a terror, was in the skies last night. I was used to seeing all the patriotic flags hanging on overpasses on I-195 and Rt. 140 going from New Bedford to Taunton, MA. However, last night, nearly every one of them were lit up with people, Americans holding candles in just a part of a nationwide vigil to remember the fallen Americans in New York, Washington and PA. I am reminded of the song by Charlie Daniels "In America" I beleive it is called, which reminds us that we all have differences like which car we drive, which football team is better, but when tested we are all Americans and come together. That patriotic feeling is proven to be deep inside us all after Tuesday's horrifying attacks as people across the nation have come together and united. It is a wonderful feeling, but I hate that it had to come at the cost of such a loss of life.

I have been growing away from religion over the years, but for the first time in a long time I felt very conforted by the references to God in the light of Tuesday's terror. It was nice to hear people mentioning God yesterday and made me feel peaceful. However, Pat Robertson really wrecked that feeling last night. He accused the American people's lack of faith in God to be the cause of the terrorist attacks on Tuesday. He said "Since people have lost their faith God has lifted his protecting hand from over the country." in effect accusing the American people for the cause of the tragedy because they haven't shared his beliefs. UNBELIEVABLE he would insinuate that!! His goal here was to encourage a return to faith in God, and you know with this tragedy, I kind of was restoring my faith . . . until he said that shit. Thanks a lot Pat!!

To end this day on a good note, I am still feeling very united as a country, and I am excited about putting the hammer down on terrorism; enough is enough with this cowardly terrorism shit!