by Jennifer Arnold

Created on: September 11, 2008   Last Updated: September 11, 2009

Most of us remember vividly where we were on this day. I was sitting in my living room with my then 2 year old son. Suddenly my husband, with a telephone to his ear, ran into the room screaming, "Turn on the TV!" Which he did before I even had a chance to get up from the sofa. Then I saw it. In New York City, the smoke billowed from Tower One and the news reported that we, America, had been attacked. I watch dumfounded as the symbolic building in a symbolic city burnt, feeling confused and disoriented. This was America, we don't get attacked! Attacked, on our soil? And then it happened. Tower Two was struck and my despair, my fear, my confusion heightened. Soon we learned of the Pentagon and then Flight 93 that plunged to the ground in Philadelphia while in route to the White House. Then our world shook as the Twin Towers collapsed into a pile of rubble. Soon we and the world, were glued to the TV desperate for answers as we watched and re-watched the attacks over and over again.

What many parents, myself included, didn't notice right away was that so was our children. Mine, as I mentioned earlier, was 2 years old. He undoubtedly had no idea what was happening. He was so young, he didn't understand national pride yet or what it meant to be an American. What position America held in the international community. To him this was just as real to his life as any other explosion or burning building in any other television broadcast. But something in the way his parents acted must have told him otherwise. My son at this tender age, paid better attention than I gave him credit for.

Over the preceding months, as you may remember, national pride was at an all time high. People mounted American flags on their porches and pasted stickers to the cars. Friends and neighbors join the armed forces and national guard in droves. Camouflaged pattern everything came into style and we Americans were going to show them. You can attack us, but you can't keep us down. All the while my 2 year old son continued to watch carefully.

Over the preceding years since that fateful day many of our neighbors and proud American have scaled back on the pride-filled display of patriotism. Flags came down, cars were traded in and no new flag stickers were reaffixed to the newer models, people started to go along with their own lives. For some, the ongoing war in Iraq became a focus of their lives. Others the idiotic leadership provided to us by President Bush became a focus. And while nearly every

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