It changed family relationships. My daughter called from Texas that morning and told me she loved me. She said let's talk while we watch what has happened in New York. Neither of us seemed to care about the phone bill. We just needed that time to help us deal with what had just happened to our country. I had a friend in the area of the bombings,but was able to find out he was ok. He had been in Harlem that day teaching.I believe alot of familes may have become closer that day. Mine did and has stayed close.
Linda Vonk
4449 north eddy avenue
fresno,ca 93727
559-292-0411\ladybluebird@gmail.com
Published freelance writer

It will be remembered as the day that a man who seized the office of president through illegitimate means tried to legitimize himself and his tenure by destroying the Twin Towers with strategically placed explosives and planes that were diverted into the Towers to make it appear that they were hijacked by terrorists. This is why he didn't have the planes shot down although they easily could have been. Everyone knows those planes alone wouldn't have brought down those buildings.

Bush hoped to rally Americans around him and make them forget how he stole the election from a duly elected Al Gore. Bush then created a tenuous link between 9/11 and Iraq so he could wage war on it, avenge his father, and hoard oil to enrich himself.

Now that his approval ratings and that of his party are in the tank, don't be surprised if Bush stages another attack before November to try to bring Americans to the polls in fear and likely to vote for the supposedly-tough-on-terror GOP.

This is what 9/11 will be remembered for -- one of the most heinous acts ever by one of the most murderous, treacherous leaders to have ever lived.

On the Morning of 9/11 I was to pick up a warrant in lieu of payment for my share of a family farm that had been in my family since 1926 or thereabouts. My parents had been killed in an automobile in 3/99, and it took until now to reach a settlement. Of course, the settlement was delayed further, not because of 9/11, but due to the source of the funds for the warrant in lieu of payment for etc. was still incomplete.
I had driven my daughters to high school that morning and I vaguely could follow what was going on on NPR that morning because they rarely sounded so "live" in their normally carefully produced manner. Upon returning home, I saw the second plane hit the tower and woke up my wife. I myself had just had triple by pass surgery and my wife was recovering from gastric bypass surgery, as well. You can barely comprehend how incomprehensibly stressed we already were, faced with an inevitable move off of the home they we'd shared for almost ten years, and off the land that I'd known as home for almost 50 years, 25 of which I farmed.
We thought that we had found some property north of Madera to move to that would accomodate our family, our dogs and possibly, a few more as well on 6 acres outside of Raymond/Ahwahnee (Grub Gulch), north of the Fresno River. What changed?
I lost contact with my blood family for almost 5 years, and lost the property in raymond, and almost lost my wife to breast cancer. The job I had in Mariposa died due to lack of funding, and I watched helplessly as I lost my property, dignity and Bush ushered us into an extended drama in attaining ill-advised revenge, which only lined the pockets of Dick Cheney's friends and comrades, while leaving another Bush Presidency to dessicate in the sands of Iraq.
I am trying to get a teaching credential, I am working in a middle school library. My wife is working as a chef instead of stressing over a mental health caseload of the neediest parents and families in the system--criminal, social welfare, or mental health. We are both turning around in our lives and facing the fact that what got us through the challenge of past few years has not been political, moral or philosophical. It was spiritual. Our church families have encouraged, prayed and brought grace into lives when we most needed it. The financial help didn't hurt either, but it was mostly their encouragement that God had a plan for us, as long as we didn't die without a purpose, or an acknowledgement of genuine salvation. It has been a lonely and discouraging path at times, but it has also pointed out the only source of power that makes it possible to go on and prosper.
As I rode the bus to work this morning, I saw in the rising sun. As long as I am able to see a new day, I know that I have another day's grace to serve Him who saved me.