Remembering 9/11 - One Nation Under God

Watching the opening of the 9/11 Memorial Museum was very emotional.  Everyone old enough to remember that day knows exactly where they were when 9/11 occurred.   This Blogger has often been at the apex of history in my life.  9/11 was no exception.  I was actually in the New York City area when 9/11 occurred on a business trip.  Monday, the day before I was directly across the Hudson River looking out at the World Trade Center; never thinking that the next day those buildings would be gone.   I was in New York City because on Tuesday, 9/11, we had a meeting scheduled at 9 am with a major financial institution.   We got a call on Monday to reschedule that meeting to Wednesday instead.  As a result, rather than stay in New York City on Monday night, we drove out to our office in Connecticut. 

While the attack on 9/11 was happening, I was actually on the phone with the client contact in New York City, who was watching it from his window first hand.  We will forever be connected by that phone call as the client contact had to evacuate their building.  Suffice to say, our Wednesday meeting never happened.   Instead, I was now in Connecticut unable to get back to California, since all flights were grounded.  Some people rented cars to drive across country.   I was not about to do that.   We had an all company Management Meeting scheduled in Chicago a week later.   So, I decided to inch my way to Chicago, however, I could do it.  By Friday of that week, there were limited flights.  Security at the airport involved searching through every bag.  So, I flew to Pittsburgh to spend the weekend with relatives in the area.   By Monday of the next week I was able to get to Chicago. 

Many in our company asked us to cancel our Management Meeting, since we would have people flying in from around the world.  As the CEO of our company, I said absolutely NOT.   We would not allow these Terrorist Fanatics to change our way of life.   We did have a few managers who were afraid to fly and as such we honored their request to stay home; but otherwise our meeting went on as planned. 

In many ways, 9/11 changed the world forever.  It is one of few times in my life, when we truly were One Nation Under God.  As Commander In Chief, President George W Bush brought our nation together.  There is no doubt that when Bush stood on the rubble of the World Trade Center that it was his finest moment as President of the United States.  Bush recognized that we were at war with Radical Islam and acted accordingly.  Justice was done when President Obama gave the order to capture, or kill Osama Bin Laden.  The war against Terrorism continues.   We can never allow Terrorist Fanatics to change our way of life.