11 years ago, we were doing whatever we normally did on a Tuesday morning in September. We were at work or going to work. We were at school or on our way there. At home, maybe in a car, a bus or on a train.

Tens of thousands were on planes or ready to board one.

It was just another Tuesday morning.

Then, it changed.

The World Trade Towers. The Pentagon. A field in rural Pennsylvania.

Everything changed.

Nothing would be quite the same again.

We were saddened, apprehensive, scared and looking for a sign of hope.

In the most abnormal of situations, those were the proper emotions.

We were also shocked, stunned and in disbelief.

We shouldn’t have been. We should have seen it coming. We should have realized we were a target and it wasn’t the first time.

8 years earlier, the World Trade Center had been attacked and that attack, like 9-11, had been at the hands of the same murderous group.

Al Qaeda.

The Kovar Towers? That was al Qaeda too.

The USS Cole?

Al Qaeda.

They had been at war with us for a long time but we were not at war with them. 9-11 was the next step in their escalating reign of terror against the United States and we should have seen it coming. We should have but, we didn’t and we paid a very high price for being asleep.

After 5 years…10…11 years…Are we any more awake than we were on that Tuesday morning in September back in 2001?

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