FEMA: A Nation Remembers, A Nation Recovers

Your Comments One Year Later

As the day approaches, I can feel the despair and fear, but also the hope and healing. I work as a Flight Attendant, and I say a prayer every time the aircraft door closes, and every time we arrive safely. God Bless America, and all the people that make it such a great country. My prayers are with you.

Nancy
September 10, 2002

September, the month of fall's beginning and summer's ending. Why September?

The days after 9/11 were foggy for me. The weather in Florida was warm and sunny but in my head a mist covered my thoughts and feelings. I had to look at the pictures again and again. I went back to the news sites several times a day to look at the photographs of the planes, the buildings, the field, the dust. I tried so hard to understand that people were sitting in those planes, those buildings. I tried so hard to understand the last moments of so many who died in so many ways. It was beyond me, no matter how I struggled to comprehend this event. All I really wondered was if the list of deceased, the real estate destroyed, the global attention; did they satisfy the vendetta for which they were made to pay? What does it take for even a terrorist to say, "enough"?

And once again, up stepped our heroes. It was through those left to pick up the fallen and carry on that I began to comprehend the meaning of this horrific event. But is it only through tragedy that heroes are made? Oh no, heroes don't just magically emerge on occasions like 9/11, they work, live, and give every single day here in America. This country is built on simple people who, through their heroism, have stood by our flag, our country, our democracy since before 1776; have lived for freedom, died for freedom, and gave this land it's heritage, its presence, and its future. Under their sacrifice do we live our daily lives and under the sacrifice of those who died for the same reasons on 9/11 do we continue to live. I send my thanks and gratitude heavenward where those heroes have gone. I thank them for the reminder of what my freedom costs. I thank them for a hard-won understanding of what 9/11 really meant.

Now it is September again, a year later. A picture of the cleaned up lot in New York sits on my bulletin board, those simple working people again, finishing the ugly chores. I no longer have to chase photographs to clear the fog in my mind, it has dissipated slowly over time. What I chase now is my regular old life once more, because I can, not ever forgetting to thank some heroes as I go. I love you America.

C.M.
Panama City, FL
September 10, 2002

Thank god for the USA and all our heros.

John
September 10, 2002

The saddest day I have ever known. We, as a country, will never forget. I pray it will never be repeated. I still do not comprehend why others feel this is the way to further their views. It has brought so much pain, yet so much hope to so many. I'm grateful for my country, and the many wonderful Americans who gave their lives, so that I can live free. God Bless Us All.

Michelle
September 10, 2002

I am from a small town in Central Louisiana. I work with a volunteer fire department. Has not a day went by that I have not thought about the heroes of 9/11. I wish there was a way to take away their pain from the loss of their loved ones. We are having a Memorial Day for them on Sept 11, 2002 the film will be sent with the two small fire trucks from Louisiana to New York! God Bless New York!

Nona
Montgomery, LA
September 10, 2002

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