Remember today…

…the thousands of people who died on 9-11-01 and every one of their family and friends who carry a burden most of us cannot understand…

…the fear, one so powerful it rolled in waves from the blind streets of New York to the beaches of California and turned America into an Edvard Munch print…

…the anger, a seething rage that made the gentlest of people use words like “revenge” a million times before they considered “forgiveness”…

…the sadness, one unlike this country had ever felt, one that ripped a seam from the country’s fabric and exposed each person at his soul…

…the pride that swelled across the nation when we realized we could, in fact, overcome…

…the war and the thousands of men and women who died doing a job most people won’t do…

…the companies that made billions because of the war…

…that there were no weapons of mass destruction…

…that after nine years of searching, killing, and nation-building, the people behind the attack on America are still out there…

…that a country’s fear is the most effective sedative in governance…

…to always ask who benefits when a country and its government act…

…that most of the people in the world do not live in America…

…that the world is made up of generally good people of countless cultures and religions who appreciate America because it was a place where an immigrant’s dreams could come true…

…that everything is not as black and white as your political party would like you to think…

…that goodness, charity, tolerance, and freedom are at the heart of America…

…that America was not attacked because of those values…

…that men and women are still dying overseas defending those values…

…that people in positions of great power in American tacitly attack those values every day…

…that America is not what it’s always been, but what we make it when we wake up every morning…

…the thousands of people who died on 9-11-01 and every one of their family and friends who carry a burden most of us cannot understand…