Thought from the morning

By Jay Johnson: 9/11 + 10 years

Terror ripped through the fabric of our nation

Tore open our defenses

Exploded our security

We, as a nation on that day, were shell-shocked

Not a single foreign enemy fighter plane

No guns

No tanks

No breech of our air space

No advanced warning system alarms

No invasion

Just our civilian commercial airplanes

And 23 cowardice hijackers

And in 3 hours shut this nation down

Killed 2977 people

Destroyed Manhattan, New York City

The Pentagon

And flight 93 Shanksville Pennsylvania

Everyone on the planet remembers where they were that day

Because of the horror

Because of witness to death

Because of a connection to "There by the grace of God go I"

Because of the thought of losing someone

Because of the exposure to one's own mortality and one's own truth

This moment in time 10 years ago just before the attacks

THE WORLD WAS RELATIVELY QUIET

No world wars

No threat of terrorism here at home

No Homeland Security branch of government

Where are we today

What have we learned

Where am I today

What have I learned

We as a nation still bicker among ourselves

Osama Bin Laden is Dead

We have rebuilt what was destroyed

We will open today the memorials to history and the loss and the names of the people of 9/11

What have we learned is much tougher

Can we inoculate ourselves from Insanity, Madness, Hate

Can we make the Homeland safe

And........There still are wolves at the gate at this very moment......

We have learned this nation is important to the world

We have learned how to fight

Fight fear

Fight indecision

Fight terror

Fight in the desert

Fight in remote mountain terrain

And what is worth fighting for......this is the lesson of 9/11

What we fight for:

We fight for each other

We fight for us

A people who have fought for freedom for 250 years

We fight for what we love

Not what we Hate

There is a difference in a AMERICA

We fight for the freedom of another and we will lay down our lives for them.

We do not fight for the right to rule the world

We do not fight for our God

We do not fight for more land, to exterminate a race, a belief, a language

We do not fight for us......we fight for another.

Our neighbor

Our victims

Our weak

Our poor

Our industry

Our health

Our education

Our entrepreneurial spirit

Our innovation

Our freedom to

Speak

Assemble

Worship..not worship

Of the Press

Elect

Tax or not tax

Pursue life's pursuits and Happiness

Pretty much: what the entire world wants

America holds this promise.

Which is why, Wolves are and always will be, at the Gate

This America

These people "Americans"

This land, "Home of the Free"

Is worth fighting for

And 10 years after being attacked by the opposite of what we are

Stand United this Day

To remember

And: "That we here highly resolve

That these dead shall not have died in vein

That this nation

Under god

Shall have a new birth of freedom

And that government

Of the people

By the people

For the people

Shall not perish from the earth" Abraham Lincoln

And that I highly resolve to

re-dedicate to that proposition

So help me God

God Bless Those who ran up the stairs

God Bless Those still in the stairs

God Bless Those who morn today

God Bless those who watch over us today

and God Bless America

Now and forever and even after that

This I know for sure

Amen