The Day America Was Robbed

Eleven years.  My son, Greggory, is eleven years old.  September 11, 2001 was eleven years ago today.  Greggory has no concept of a world before 9/11.  It happened only a month after he was born. He wasn't even home yet.  He was still in the NeoNatal Intensive Care Unit(NNICU) at the hospital where he was born.  Heather and I were getting dressed to go feed him when my brother called to tell us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Our lives, all of us, were changed that day. The people who crashed into the towers and the Pentagon that day took more than loved ones away from us. They took away our sense of well-being. This was their biggest success.  Yes, we came together as Americans and showed our pride in our country. We spoke to the neighbor we had never even had coffee with before.  We waved to the people passing on the sidewalk. We hung our American flag on our house and put our stickers on our cars. All this was a positive reaction to the tragedy, but inside us there was something missing. It was that feeling of confidence born in every American. The confidence that came from being secure and safe in the borders of our land.  This was stolen from us.  It was violently ripped from us. It is a void that I don't think can be filled.