The question will be asked for the next century: &uot;Where were you when…&uot;

Where were you when America’s heart was ripped to rubble on the ground we now call Zero?

Where were you when terrorists pointed a plane at the United States’ five-walled defense?

Where were you when a group of men and women from our heartland decided their airplane would land in a Pennsylvania field rather than America’s capitol?

Where were you when we changed &045;&045; every one of us changed?

Yes, just as we talk about locations when a man landed on the moon, we’ll always sort through our minds, trying to recall where we stood, where we sat, on the morning of Sept. 11. The morning terrorists tore our nation apart. The morning terrorists united an already united nation.

The memories are important. They help us cope with a time in American history when we all re-evaluated the loyalty we feel to our nation, to our families and to our religion. At the same time, rekindling the memories from one year ago will make no difference at all if we store them in the back of our minds and use them as an annual reason to cry.

In the weeks, even months, after the attacks of Sept. 11, we changed. We filled churches and synagogues. We hugged our parents, our spouses and our children every time we saw them. Our stomachs turned in emotional circles every time we cited the Pledge of Allegiance or sang the &uot;Star Spangled Banner.&uot;

Have we lost that daily emotion? Have we lost, already, the yearning to make America the best nation in the world by living with a higher sense of purpose?

Over time, it’s understandable to lose some of the initial emotion of such a tragic event. But what makes an event a tragedy is the way we respond.

In some way or another, we must never lose our hunger for morality &045;&045; something we discovered one year ago. We must understand that the freedom to worship, the freedom to live and pursue happiness, even the freedom to speak cannot be forsaken. We cannot allow ourselves to callous to our privileges just because we live in America.

There is no other nation like ours. As long as we hold fast to our emotion, our faith and our sense of purpose, there never will be.