Remembering 9/11

I attended a local community festival last night where they had carnival rides, a concert and fireworks. It seemed strange at first to be at a celebration like this on 9/11. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed fitting. After all, we need to celebrate our communities and together focus on the future to heal from the tragedy of events like 9/11. I'll admit too, I teared up during the fireworks when everyone was cheering and they played, "Proud to be an American." It was a beautiful moment.

Contrast that with the funeral yesterday for a local soldier who was killed in Afghanistan. He graduated from the high school I graduated from. The funeral was moving and the way the community turned out to support his family and friends and honor his memory was amazing. I had a really hard time with the protestors at the funeral. The signs they held were unspeakably offensive...I know that our soldiers fight for the right of freedom of speech for all but it goes a little far when someone is standing around with signs like "Thank god for 9/11." and other worse things implying we deserve tragedy like terrorism and losing our friends, sons, brothers, husbands, sisters, wives, daughters, etc. in fighting to protect our freedom. It is so wrong on such a deep level. The community rallied though and "protested" by showing their patriotism and support in unprecedented numbers. The way to quiet the negative voices and bring about the right focus is to fight back with all the patriotism, tolerance, love and respect we can muster to show for each other. Qu'ran burning, protesting at soldier's funerals, nazi skinheads...all are able to say their piece in our country because it was designed to give us the freedom to speak out without harm. The fact that they abuse that freedom by trying to deny that right to others is a shame. But we will not overcome them by giving them publicity and letting them cause further damage that way. They need to be ignored and we need to provide more positive examples of what it means to have that freedom...like supporting each other and all groups of American citizens in living together in harmony. Don't worry about the mosque near Ground Zero. It's a tribute to the wonder of our country...we all stand together, shoulder to shoulder, celebrating our differences and uniting in those things we share. That's the way to heal from 9/11 and try to prevent future tragedies. Unity, not division.