Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11 and it's another glorious day

Today is the ten year anniversary for that shocking and horrifying day referred to only as 9/11. Everyone knows what you mean when you say 9/11. Well, most everyone old enough to know. I have heard about the Holocaust, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and many other events. I "know" about John F Kennedy being assassinated, Vietnam, and 9/11.
It is actually a stunningly beautiful day here where I live. I don't recall what the weather was like on 9-11-01 as I was already at work that day. I worked in a call center and I was on a call with a customer who asked if I knew what was going on and then proceeded to tell me what she knew so far. At my break, I watched what was being shown on the news. I saw when the second tower fell. Unbelievable.

I don't know what age it is when we begin to know things about ourselves, but somehow I feel as though I have always been patriotic. I loved saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school, I love hearing someone sing our national anthem (but only if they sing it straight and true...none of that "interpretation" crap (that's a right of an American)), and when I see our military bands marching and playing I get choked with emotion. I loved learning the flag ceremony in Girl Scouts. I am sentimental. I am patriotic. I love America. When I put my hand on my heart, I mean it. I AM ALL AMERICAN. As I said on Face book today....I am a John Wayne kind of girl. Fiercely loving of this country. All that is good about her and all that needs some help. I wouldn't want to live any where else. And I have thought about that. Just like any job you have has it's good points and bad points, or any relationship, or each of us individually, every country in the world has it's good points and bad. I kind of prefer what we have going on here over any other country in the world.
My father has traveled many places in the world and he found a plethora of things to dislike about America, but on the other hand, he never lived in on of those countries as their citizen. Otherwise, he might have thought better about where he came from. If he had ever broken the law in one of those countries and gotten caught, I don't think he would have liked the consequences. We are not perfect, America and I, but I think we have more good things going on than not.
As I listened many times to my father disliking America, I had to point out to him that zillions of people want to come to America. I don't see zillions of them wanting to leave. I would be curious to know how many of the people that leave their home countries to come to America, actually return to their country of birth by choice. Now why would that be? There may be many countries where very few of the citizens would choose to leave and some countries where many choose to leave. I don't know this for certain so this is only my opinion and not a known fact by me, but....I think very few Americans who were born and raised here choose to leave and move to another country and become a citizen of that country. We have wealthy citizens who have enough money to have homes in multiple places and they have enjoyed the topography and climate of that place, or even the way those people live day to day so they want to go there frequently or live there part time, but they do not want citizenship in that country. They do not want to give up being an American. I believe the percentage of Americans who give up their citizenship to be quite tiny or minuscule in comparison to those that come here and want to become an American citizen.

The people who made 9/11 a reality of horror through what I think is crazy religious beliefs don't get the concept of having the right to believe what you want and allowing others to believe what they want. You are allowed to be different. It is a basic right and a founding father's imagination coming to fruition. Dreaming. Believing. Discussing. Sharing. Joining together with others to make it come true. Fighting. Defending. Preserving. Progressing. America. We the people.

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