September 11th

You know, I can't remember where I put my keys but I remember what happened on September 11th 2001.

It was a perfect sunny September morning.

The sky was a brilliant blue.

I went to the gym in Burlington as I usually did every morning. Everytime I would go to the gym at the same time everyday I would see the same people working out at that same time as well.

This morning was different.

The gym was empty.

I thought that was odd thinking maybe it was a holiday or something.

The front desk people were frantically turning on all the overhead TVs. I thought it was weird that the movie "Die Hard" where buildings were being blown up was playing on every channel they put on.

Once the sound came on I realized it wasn't a movie.

It was the news.

Oh my God.

I ran home.

My long time pal called me on the phone telling me to "turn the F*&^ing TV on!"

There it was.

Four planes were hijacked from Boston-two went into the twins towers, one into the Pentagon and another in a field.

Shortly after we lost electricity.

The only sound I could hear despite living next to a busy traffic congested street was the soar of fighter jets overhead.

It was surreal.

Who did this?

A fringe group of Islamic terrorists.

Nine years later we still are at war with these extremists and their "terror cells" appear to be growing like a deadly cancer.

I pray everyday for peace.

I thank God at night for giving me a warm comfortable bed at night.

I'll complain about silly trivial things when in reality there are people in Africa and the middle east that are just barely surviving, hiding from cruel despotic regimes.

I worry things will change for the worse here in the US.

I think it is a really REALLY bad idea for that Florida minister, Terry Jones, to burn the Koran as a form of protest against islamic terrorists.

The Koran is a holy book.

Parts of the book overlap the Old Testiment. He will now piss off moderate muslims by doing something so stupid. He doesn't seem to understand the terrorists have perverted a religion to suit their goals. These terrorists have killed and tortured thousands of innocent muslims just for the sake of control.

Bad idea Rev. Terry.

This is EXACTLY what the terrorists want.

They want to make "religion" an issue.

If you are pissed off because of what happened on 9/11 then burn a photo of Osama Bin Laden instead or piss on photos of the stooges that blew up the towers.

They are the bad guys.

Yes, we have freedom of speach and expression but...use a little common sense.

This goes for building a mosque near ground zero.

A little common sense would tell you it might not be the best idea.

Still, there are some people who would blame 9/11 on muslims and feel deeply offended that they would have the balls to build a mosque near the towers. Sure, they could build the mosque and everything might be fine and dandy. But what happens if some angry Americans decide to destroy the mosque out of anger?

This would start a major shit-storm.

Yes, we have freedom of religion here.

At least for the most part, unless of course you're a Catholic and want to put an angel on a "holiday tree" (it's no longer called a "Christmas tree"). I remember in 8th grade a teacher told me I "wasn't allow to put an angel on the holiday tree because it was offensive to some of the other students".

Are you shitting me?

Needless to say, I made a bunch of angels and stuck them all over the tree (plus a few assorted paper penises I added as well) I got caught and was sent to the principle's office (again)

Sorry.

I was off in a tangent.

Where were we?

Oh yeah, having and exercising common sense about touchy subjects in a volatile world.

Pray for peace.

Pray for those lost on 9/11.

Pray that it doesn't happen again.