Reflecting on the moment and meaning

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
Declaration of Independence, The United States of America, July 4, 1776

In three minutes, it will again be September eleventh.

Four years.

I will never forget the moment I awoke to the reality of that day. The careful, direct, unimaginable words Copper spoke to me that early morning as I lay nestled in my bed in next to our 5-month old daughter. The sharp, brutal imagery on TV. Those barbaric and raw events that chronicled our collective shattered national innocence from that day forward. And changed us.

I don't believe there were many Americans who did not, on that day, somehow begin living our lives in terms of "before" and "after".

Since that date, I find that I return to the words of our forefathers often. Have we forgotten our beginnings? Do we truly appreciate our human society as it was designed to be ~ a living, breathing unity created by God and governed by the laws based in the most stridently shared belief and trust that all people are indeed created equal? That by the very nature of the One who created them, they are endowed with unalienable Rights, rights that cannot be made alien to them? Despite the horrors we human beings invent to inflict upon ourselves, our equality under God and our freedoms shall never be wrested from us. Do we still believe this? Are we still committed to stand together to uphold our freedom and our equality from forces without and within? Do we still remember the price we paid for our very right to live as we dream? The price paid by American women, men, pilots, fireman, teachers, business people, flight attendants, children.

Children.

On that day, I believe we were all as children in the still, small places in our hearts. That we all cried. That we all were plunged into moments of disbelief. Moments of revulsion and sharp pain. And I believe we all bear the scars of September eleventh. May we also bear the steely resolve of our renewed purpose. Under God and under the flag we wave with special mourning today.

Please, let us not succumb to our shamefully brief attention span ~ our national short term memory ~ or more lamentable still, detached apathy. Let us Remember Today with our whole hearts. Let us honor the memory of those who died. Let us reflect on on the reasons we were attacked. Let us rejoice with each breath, and make it MATTER by adding our voices to those championing a renewed commitment to live, as a nation and as citizens of the world, conducting ourselves according to the truths the words of our Declaration of Independence profess.

Please, let us NEVER FORGET.

And live like we mean it.