9/11 - Four Years Later

While the names are too many to remember every single one of them, every 11th of September you should take a moment to at least look here and learn something about a few of those people whose lives were stolen from them by the enemy of America; by the enemy of who we are, and of what we are.

Despite this, we are still here. We are still Americans and we will stand, despite the current political climate, united together against anyone who dares harm us again.

We will not bow down to those who wish to take away from us what we have built over the past 228 years. We will not allow them to take away what millions of brave men and women have died protecting. We will not succumb to cowardly tactics and attacks on innocent people.

We are the United States of America. We are one nation who refuses to surrender our principals, our morals and our existence.

You may have shocked us, but you do not scare us. Unlike you, we will not flee to caves to hide from your wrath. We will stand up and proudly state: "You may prick us, and we will bleed, but where one of us falls, another will stand and take his place because we are Americans and we do not, and will not surrender our way of life to those who hate us because we are who we are."

Please take a moment to remember those 2,948 people who died on this dark day. Continue to remember them every single day of the year. If you forget them, then you forget yourself.

A few of the people I decided to get to know...

Daniel Thomas Afflitto; 32 from Manalapan, NJ. Equities trader at the WTC. Has a very cute baby.
Robert Penniger; 63 from Poway, CA. An electrical engineer. He drove a green car. He was killed on Flight 77.
Kathy Bantis; 44 from Chicago, IL. She worked at Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. She was very close to her cousin, Charlene in high school. She was killed at the WTC.
Capt. William F. Burke; 46 from NYC. He was a firefighter. He died trying to save people at the WTC. While everyone else was trying to flee, he was one of those who went in.
Cora Hidalgo Holland; 52 from Sudbury, MA. She worked at the Sudbury Food Pantry, helping those less fortunate than herself. She was killed on Flight 11.
Cortz Ghee; 54 from Reisterstown, MD. He was a civilian working for the US Army. He was killed at the Pentagon.
Toshiya Kuge; 20 from Nishimidoriguoska, Japan. He wasn't from here. He was a college student visiting America. He was killed on Flight 93.

There are so many more; and it is a shame that we cannot get to know every single one of them. Not just their names, but who they were. We do know that they were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, grandparents, and cousins of someone else. Someone who had them taken from them in an act of selfish cowardice.

Please, again. Take a moment out of your day to visit the September 11th Victims Website. And get to know at least one of those who died.