NEVER FORGET

NEVER FORGET


I will never forget the sound of my Mother’s voice, “It’s happening again…we are under attack. Are you watching television?” There was a quaver in her tone, one I had never heard before. I told her we were watching and had just seen the second plane hit the towers. I also told her we were on our way to get our kids from school and to pick up our friend’s children as she was on her way to take her husband to the Reserve Center. “Please come here when you’re done. I never thought in my life-time that we would be under attack again.”

‘Again’; I didn’t understand her use of the word ‘again’. Then the realization hit…Pearl Harbor…Mother and Daddy had lived through the time of Pearl Harbor and after. They knew what an attack like this meant and what would inevitably follow.

No one denies the tragedy of Pearl Harbor; yet there are those who would deny the magnitude of the attacks of 911, 2001. They insist that we should be ‘tolerant’ and to ‘let it go and move on’. But I, in good conscience, cannot do that.

If being tolerant means that I must be complacent, that I must lay down my own belief in God and freedom, that I must put aside the future and safety of my family and friends in favor of being politically correct while those from other countries call for and are allowed to dictate that their beliefs should be considered over and above those of American Citizens, then I will not be tolerant.

I will not let go and move on as if the atrocity of 911 never happened. I will stand up and defend to the last hand the memory of those citizens, police and fire-fighters that lost their lives that day and I shall support and pray for those members of the military who sacrifice daily for our freedom and our safety. I will not be bullied into silence with threats of being branded a home-grown terrorist as I exercise my right to free speech as I call for our elected officials to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States of America or be held accountable. I will fly and honor our flag and those ideals that hold us together as ‘One Nation Under God’.

And I will NEVER FORGET that day or what was done to us in an effort to destroy our life and liberty; just as I will never forget the sound of my Mother’s voice.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

©Debra Coppinger Hill




RIDING DRAG with DEBRA COPPINGER HILL is featured each week at ALWAYS COWBOY where Debra is a Resident Western Poet. Join her and her Cowboy Friends for Cowboy Poetry, News & Events. http://alwayscowboy.net/debra_coppinger_hill_poetry.html