Lest we forget:

It's 8:46 CST. Two years and a few minutes ago I was staring open mouthed at the television. I had a phone pressed to my ear, talking to Chasmyn and waiting for my mom to call back with news of my in-laws in New York. I had already called L's school, and was told they would not be releasing the children early.

News anchors were just beginning to report that a plane or helicopter had crashed into the Pentagon. They couldn't say whether the crash at the Pentagon was related to the crashes at the World Trade Center. United Airlines flight 93 had been in the air for over an hour, and two f-15 fighters were heading from Falmouth Mass. to New York City. 2 more f-15's were scrambled, but no one was willing to speculate as to whether they'd have to shoot down a commercial airplane full of civilians. Nobody mentioned the fighters at all after that.

Our President was somewhere up in the sky on Air Force One. No one knew where he was. The Vice-President was hiding in a bunker in Washington. It was hours before we heard from the President. I'm sure he was busy and all, but we really needed to hear him say something about all this.

My husband and I watched the first building crumble. It was horrible, it was beautiful, it was right and fitting. (not the deaths of the people, the death of the structure) It was eerie seeing only one building where two had been moments before. I was hoping the second tower would survive. I was hoping they had evacuated most of the people. The damage at the Pentagon was practically ignored. There was a brief report that a plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. That it may have also been hijacked, and that something might have gone wrong.

At 9:28 (my time) the second building collapsed, and still very little was said about the Pentagon.

Elections were postponed, our borders were closed, all on military flights were grounded, no stocks were sold. Our country sent warships to protect the East coast, and make the ports less of a target. The President was still flying around in an empty sky, and average people dug through rubble looking for survivors, and looking for hope.