Ceremonies mark ninth anniversary of 9-11

So many people.
Seems we have forgotten already.

I don't think anyone has forgotten martin. So many innocent people lost their lives that day.

I see it more as a day the majority of us would like to forget ever happened, though that will never be. I, personally, will always remember getting a call that morning to turn on CNN (at that point it was reported that 2 planes had crashed in NYC) then being unable to move as I watched the towers burn. I watched as the towers came down and I still remember the utter incomprehension I felt witnessing that. I called work to say I was running late and then provided a commentary to a co-worker to what was being shown on TV (he, in turn was relaying it to everyone else). When I eventually got to work I ended up spending the day watching countless airplanes diverted to YVR, fly past my workplace. It was surreal. None of us could work or even think about it as we watched these planes come in, one after another, after another. Then there was complete silence in the skies... it was spooky. Working and living near a major airport... I'll never forget that silence. And what it meant.

It is a day that forever changed our lives, all of us, no matter where we live.

It is a day that essentially ended the freedoms we used to have. Now we are all suspicious, some more than others. Now we have a whole new brand of hatred that we didn't have before. And ever since then we continue to see more flag-draped coffins being returned to home countries, more innocent victims of a war that is a result of that day.

No, we haven't forgotten. It's just hard to rememebr.

In a way the terrorists have succeeded. The effect their act has had on Western society is, in the end, more damaging and widespread than the act itself. Passports and visas to get into the States, no fly lists, what we thought were inalienable rights suspended in the name of security,... thousands more dead in wars on terror, the US bankrupting itself to fight these wars on foreign soil(when a better answer to the problem can be found on our own shores)and still the jihadists attack us from within.

Sadly Shep, you are correct.

We are forever now in a state of being ready for the next one. "Living" in fear.