Hate is Dangerous

It was just another pretty fall day in Geilenkirchen, Germany. I was a reservist in the USAF and a contract teacher at the elementary school. The best of both worlds in my book.

As my daughter reminds me, I was the after-school cookie mom. Many of the kids would go to my after-school program, complete with homemade cookies, and come home with me for a later parent pick-up.

I was also an IMA with EUCOM PA in Stuttgart, Germany, and would back up the Active Duty officers on the account that included Iraq and Turkey.

On this day, I was taking a bunch of kids home with me after teaching. I had to stop and get milk at the grocery store, so I left my brood (4th grade and down) in the car with the radio on and the windows rolled down. It was a beautiful day.

I got into the car, and my son looked at me with a terrified look and says, "Mom, something is wrong. We need to go home." He had turned off the radio.

When we got home, the kids went to play. JW and I turned on the TV to watch the news just as the second tower was hit.

September 11, 2001--- changed every life. From the lives on the planes who died, those who went to work that morning in NYC, those who died--and survived, the first responders in NYC and Shanksville, PA, and all the lives they touched and beyond. Nothing remained the same.

Never forget the cost of hate. The terrorists who executed thousands that day did it because they hated America so much that they wanted to bring her to her knees.

In my life, my then-husband volunteered to deploy to America in her defense. I was non-volunteered and deployed to HQ EUCOM for a year (I was returned to Active Duty 10-1-2002). My children moved into the neighbors down the street until the paternal grandfather and then my dad (thank goodness) could come to care for them.

9-11 was also my dad's birthday. We lost him 9 years later, two days before his birthday.

So this day is always sad and hard. For the memory of 9-11 and all that was lost and changed that day. And for missing my father, who was my biggest champion in life.

NEVER FORGET

And remember, HATE IS WHAT FUELED 9-11. Be careful where you place your hate today.