In a time before social networking and hashtags, before phones were smarter than some humans, before hipsters and Flash Mobs, and even scarcely before iPods, when books and newspapers were not being read electronically, and barely past Y2K and the scare that surrounded it, the United States was changed forever.

Ten years ago, on September 11, 2001, the United States was targeted by a group, a force, of people with one common goal — death & destruction.  To destroy a nation as they knew it, a nation which stood for all that they stood against.  To target the lives of thousands of innocent people, to take them from their friends and their families, and alter reality as we all once knew it…

In some ways, they succeeded.  They made a nation built on strength suddenly become fearful, and they took so many innocent lives that day, and they changed America forever.  They changed American forever, in that they made a country built on diversity come together and love.  They made a country, built on unity — The United States of America — built on strength, freedom, pride, and courage stand tall and stand proud, with the glint of a tear in its eye.  They shifted this nation as a whole.  They made us tremble in our boots, but tall we stood, joining hands with our friends, our families, strangers, neighbors, and everyone between.  They tore families apart, and brought us all to our knees.

And yet, while we were all heartbroken and hurting, for the need to do something, to reach out, to make difference, to make things okay, to make things better, to mend what was shredded before us, we were helping each other.  We were reaching out, calling out, trying to make a difference.  We were donating blood, searching for bodies, sending our loved ones off to fight for the freedom our country was built upon.  We were calling people we knew — friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, neighbors — asking if there was anything they needed, sharing and spreading our love.

In a word before social networking, on a day our country was under attack, our society came together.  Came together as one network, one family, one country.  One nation, under God, indivisible.

The United States was changed forever on September 11, 2001.  Always remember those who lost their lives that day, and in the ten years since.  Never forget what happened when those towers fell, when lives were lost and hearts were broken, and when people came together not only in the greatest city in the world, but in the greatest nation in the world.  United we stand.

God Bless the USA.

Photo Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Manhattan_Skyline_1988.JPG