Ten Years ago today...

Kainan,

Ten years ago today I wrote a letter to you and placed it in your baby book. Ten years later you can actually READ that letter! I want to update you on some events that have happened since that day. It will be just a summery because as you can imagine, it's a lot of information and there are lots of theories about what happened. As the dust settled from the events of that day, many people from across the country came together in efforts to try and rescue survivors and to clean up the destruction that was caused by all four planes crashing.

We found out that people on the fourth plane, Flight 93, did what they could to stop the hijackers from causing more destruction. They have their lives to assure that others were safe. When they got ready to take on the hijackers they said "let's roll..." Their spirit of a united front defines what true heroes are.

There was a total of 2,996 people that died that day, 19 of those were hijackers. Of that total 411 of those people were emergency workers who responded to the scene and died as they tried to rescue people and fight fires. The people that passed away that day created, through their deaths, a new way of life for people across the world. Some of that way of life involves the loss of other American lives to achieve not only freedom for others but also to hold those accountable that helped plan the terrorist acts.

Many people have differing opinions of weather things were handled the way they should have been or not, but I truly believe that our leaders did the best they could with what they has to work with at the time. Our Nation has been at war with terrorists for the last 10 years, your whole life. Also, in that 10 years, President Bush's successor President Obama has continued the fight on terrorism ans on May 1st of this year our US Troops finally found Osama bin Laden, and brought him to justice.

The people that committed these acts were religious fanatics that believed they were serving God through what they were doing. To me it's no different that a cult who tries to achieve power or reward through the destruction of others. Acts like these are not what God wants, and that's why it's so very important to learn and research not only your religion but also others as well. It's important to learn the history of these events so we can keep things like this from happening again. That's why I wrote to you that day 10 years ago. I left my fears out of that letter thinking it best to just leave the facts, but I can tell you now, I am no longer afraid. We live in the greatest Nation on Earth, while not perfect, we are founded on the ideals that freedom is for all who live here and that is what the terrorists were actually fighting. Now THEIR nations are more free, they DIDN'T break America's spirit, but strengthened us.

"Our enemies have made the mistake that America’s enemies always make. They saw liberty & thought they saw weakness. And, now, they see defeat." - George W. Bush

I know I left much out, I know I am not the best spokesperson for the event but I felt it necessary to share my point of view for you while you were so small. God Bless the United States of America!

Love,

Mom