Today’s newsletter will not be a long one, so I would like to start with some housecleaning:
Thank you to everyone who reads and shares my newsletters. I appreciate all of you.
Having missed two Saturday posts now, I think I will be moving my newsletters around. I still want to put out two pieces a week, so I will figure out a new schedule.
I have something else in the works regarding a podcast I will hopefully be putting out on Substack. Stay tuned!
With all of that out of the way, I want to turn my attention to a far more pressing matter. Yesterday, as we all know, was the 21st anniversary the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
21 years ago. Think about that. Every American born before the attack is old enough to drink. The people born in the two years following the attack (including myself) have made it through the entire k-12 system. The world has changed in immeasurable ways since that day. In many, many aspects, the world has changed in immeasurable ways because of that day.
I need not recount the past, though. Instead, I want to pay tribute.
Of the nearly 3,000 people who died on that fateful day, 415 of them were first responders. In addition, a total of 4,296 servicemen and private contractors died in the War in Afghanistan. I point out these specific groups of people because they are not just victims of terrorist aggression. They are heroes as well. These men and women were not simply thrust into the history books by the actions of others; they made a choice. They chose to serve. They chose to protect us, and in making that choice they gave up their lives so that others may live. They represent the best of America. Their heroism, their patriotism, is something to aspire to.
I don’t have enough words to truly honor these men and women. I cannot recount any stories of where I was on that day; I had yet to be born (though my mom was five months pregnant, so I suppose I was in an Oklahoman glass shop). I will, then, end this post with this; the measure of a hero is not how much he gives, but the line at which he stops giving. The 4,296 men and women who have lost their lives in the wake of 9/11 were best of us; they did not stop being heroes. They never found that line. And their heroism is something to be praised and preached, forever.
Never Forget.