God Bless the U.S.A.

No words will ever be right to comment about today,
today seventeen years ago.

But to say nothing is a worse crime.

I heard worried talk amongst the grownups at the bus stop.
I saw billowing smoke gasping out of a skyscraper on a tiny television box in my fourth grade classroom.
I felt the stars and stripes,
and I wept, I wept, I wept.

I wrote the following in my journal on September 11th, 2001 (forgive spelling and accuracy details, this is the event as perceived by my nine year old self):

"Today terrorism has struck America. This very day, in New York and Washington D.C. It is the most terrify in news I have ever heard in my lifetime. Planes crashed into the Pentigon that crushed it to peices, Fires burnd in New York. 200 firefiters killed. Thousands of people, dead. Some sick, some living. this day all the lives of the United States were efected. The presidant, George W. Bush said that some of us were to go to war to fight, int eh Airforce, Army, Navy and Marines. I am woried. Will our Army win? Will I be ruled by a king in a few years? This has never happened to the United States through all of its History. This has changed my life forever."

Two days later, on September 13th:

"At school yesterday, or the day before, Mr. Martin (our principal) On the intercom put on a song, called, 'God bless the U.S.A.' The song goes something like this.
'I'm proud to be an American, at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, to give that right to me.'
It has more to the song but I can't remember the rest.
I felt as though I felt comforted a little with the words and the tune came to me. It felt as though that song was ment for me to hear. For after all I LOVE America. America is WONDERFUL."

God Bless the U.S.A.
Our country is not perfect, and our history is not without it's flaws.
But the core of American striving, that I can understand, is liberty, equality, and opportunity--values I celebrate.
And for every human soul who has suffered or died at the hands of terrorists of any kind (and for every human soul who has battled against it), I weep with you, and I plead alongside you for a world of peace and justice free from cares and sorrows.
God Bless the U.S.A.