I'll never forget that morning. I was working the graveyard shift as a craps dealer at a casino and I had arrived home at 7:30 am. As always I turned on FOXNews because it took me until about 12 or 1pm to go to bed because I had to keep up with the news no matter what. Fox and Friends was on and  Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade and E.D. Hill were goofing off like always until the first plane hit the north tower. When I was younger I had lived in New Jersey for a couple of years and my mother knew clients from her old business that worked in the north tower. I had also been in that tower myself a few years before 2001.

     When I saw the first pictures of the smoke pouring out of the gaping hole in the building I knew it had been a huge plane that struck the tower. The hole stretched across nearly the entire width of the building. I also knew that unless the pilot was a complete moron it was a terrorist attack. No way could you get a plane that low over Manhattan on a clear day then strike a building head on like that. Then just as everyone was trying to recover from the initial shock the second plane struck. I knew then as did the rest of the country that we were under attack. During the initial days after the attack nothing made me more proud than to see President Bush in New York City at Ground Zero yelling into the bullhorn that "the people that knocked these buildings down are going to hear all of us soon". Wow, It jerks tears from my eyes to this day. I was never more proud of a President. Raw, to the bone Patriotism bled out of me that day.

     I progressed rapidly through the emotional stages from shock and sadness to extreme anger. I knew that the perpetrators were the same people that had tried to blow the towers up in 1993. I knew we were going to war. Over 3000 Americans died that day more than at Pearl Harbor. An event that still lives in infamy and launched us head first into the second world war. I'll also never forget in the early days after 9/11 hearing about the heroism of Todd Beamer and the other passengers aboard flight 93 over Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Those guys are American heroes that should never be forgotten in history. It makes me so proud of them that they fought back and didn't let a few savages dictate their fate. I know that God says that vengeance is his but it is hard to hold back the anger and fury that I have for those that did this to innocent men, women, and children. 

     In the years that have passed we all have looked in the mirror and decided what America means to each of us and have gotten to see who wants America to succeed and who doesn't. We have gotten to see which Americans love America and those Americans that hate America. You can make up your own minds of course and are entitled to your own opinions on the matter, but for me this is a black and white decision. There is no gray area when it comes to God, Family, and America. Love it or leave it is what I feel. On about 9/13 the leftist America haters began to show their true colors and now 8 years later we are seeing these very same people running our government.

     All God fearing, family and America loving people need to let those that want to destroy the America of the founders know, that our love of country and the passion that drives us is infinitely more deep and powerful than their desire to turn our country into a communist country. They will lose and lose hard one way or the other politically or otherwise. There is no way in hell that I am going to die with America as a socialist or communist country. I would give my life today to save my country. I don't believe they are ready to die for communism.

     9/11 for me is one of melancholy and anger for enemies but it is also a day that I can feel proud of what we stand for and what kind of country we have been for the last 233 years. We have the best thing ever given to man on earth. We truly are the shining city on a hill. America's streets are paved with gold, just ask any recent immigrant from any third world country. We are the land of milk and honey, the shangri-la, the El Dorado. There is nothing that comes close in history. We have found the right way to do things and have dominated everything we do compared to anyone else in the world. As a nation we are the most giving and the highest achievers. It's scary in these times but I know we have leaders that will stand up with us. I wish we still had Norman Rockwell, and Presidents Reagan, Lincoln and Washington and Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne. That isn't possible so it is up to us to do what needs to be done. I pray that there still is a majority of Americans that feel the same way.

     Thank you for reading and putting up with my thoughts, please leave yours. God Bless America and all of you.