God Bless America

Seven years ago this morning, I couldn't find a decent song on the preset stations on my car radio, as I drove to my morning class: Issues in World Politics. I switched to the local AM talker, and heard the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. At class, our professor, a man of Middle Eastern descent, announced that class was cancelled for the day. I drove home to my apartment with a classmate friend, and we watched the events of 9/11/2001 unfold live before us on TV.

My life changed forever that morning, as I know it did for so many other millions of Americans. Every September 11, I watch the ceremonies on TV, marking the moments of the plane crashes and the corresponding moments of silence. I always cry as I watch and hear the reading of the names at Ground Zero. Always. It's truly overwhelming. I vividly remember that day, and that week. I'll never forget watching President Bush talking with Governor Pataki and Mayor Giuliani from the Oval Office. After his chat, he spoke with the assembled reporters. One reporter asked the president what he was thinking. Tears immediately welled up in his eyes, and he said:

Well, I don't think about myself right now. I think about the families, the children. I am a loving guy, and I am also someone, however, who has got a job to do - and I intend to do it. And this is a terrible moment.

He then began to cry, and left the Oval Office. In that single moment of honesty, of heartfelt truth, George W. Bush captured the feelings of grief and resolve of all the American People. I have loved that man ever since, and always will. I never cried, really, before those days. But while watching the National Memorial Service at the National Cathedral in Washington, I cried openly during the singing of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. I always do that now. In fact, it's hard not to shed a tear or two at the sound of any patriotic song.

It's not hard for a patriotic American to feel that way about his country. I recognize that America isn't perfect. We've made our mistakes. But our country is a shining city on a hill - a beacon of light and hope for so many millions of others. We've done so much - at so great a cost - and asked so little in return. This is a direct reflection of the fundamental goodness of the American People. It was those honest, decent, humble people who were so viciously attacked that morning seven years ago. That memory will always enrage me, and I will never forget it. I will always remember that the best of America was demonstrated in those days. I will always cling to the memory of a Great People, who had suffered so terrible and undeserved a blow, but who rose to the occasion, and made me so deeply proud of and in love with America. I am and will forever be, proud to be an American.