Ten Years Later ((Better Late Than Never))

Some people don't believe that a nine year old is capable of understanding the tragedies of humanity. However, people forget the marvelous perception a child has...
I can tell you the tiniest details of that morning ten years ago; I can't really do the same for the days following or even any of the days prior. I was just any other child, bringing home stray cats, playing in the mud or with dolls or beanie babies... Not once up until that day did I comprehend the world beyond my childhood fantasies and if I attempted to, I had never even guessed at the complexities of it all.

That morning I was early for school. I had walked the twenty minutes or so to my fourth grade classroom, past the identical white houses, the swan ponds, the bike paths through an empty dirt lot, and the small purple church to the 4th - 5th grade side of the school. I remember skipping over Maine and tip - toeing through New Hampshire, Vermont and New York on down the East Coast then jumping into the black Atlantic that was depicted brightly on the asphalt and on through space to the chipped red door.
I pulled the handle back and let myself in wondering if Mr. Prince would be recovered from his Hernia and back in our classroom. Light flooded the entry way and I turned to my left to see our substitute teacher, Ms. Rickett, sitting at the desk, her hair puffy and dark, with both hands to her mouth, her grey eyes fixated to the TV in the adjacent corner. I looked.
The first image I saw was fire on a blue sky and glass.
Ms. Rickett took a few moments to react at my arrival, all the while I stood in the door way, listening to the quickly stated words being said over and over again. Terrorists, planes, towers, pentagon. 
"Macy," She finally uttered and waved for me to come to the desk. She was brimming with tears as she wrapped one arm around me and together we watched as the towers began to collapse before our eyes.
To me, at that moment, as they collapsed, all the sorrow of the American nation seemed to collapse onto my small heart and fill my body with an ashy poison that still runs in my veins today.

Every year, when I reminded of the tragedies that took place September 11th, 2001 I still feel that bitter sadness leak into my heart. I was not there, I had no loved ones killed or injured, and I did not even know what a Terrorist was nor why they would want to take so many lives.
This country was blessed by God to come about and to provide freedoms that no one else had ever tasted before. I believe we have an obligation to respect what we have been given and to remember every event that has tested, tried, and preserved this country.

Did you know that on September 7th, 2001 the UN signed the 'Peace One Day' project to be an International day of Peace. How ironic that only four days later, America would be terrorized.