If you have a flag, fly it proudly. If you don’t have one, find one and stand beside it. Look at its field of blue with the stars and the stripes, especially the red ones and especially today.
Many men and women have died for that flag. And when we think of patriots, we generally think of those in military uniform, and rightly so. But on today, Sept. 11, pause around 10 a.m. and reflect on those horrendous events that occurred nine years ago.
Meditate on the courage and strength passengers on board a commercial aircraft flying over rural Pennsylvania had to have when they diverted a suicide mission of hijackers into a field.
Meditate on the men and women and children who lost their lives as two commercial airliners piloted by terrorists rammed into the twin towers at the World Trade Center. Then recall the lessons again demonstrated by the people in a nation who flocked to New York to assist the public servants of that city in recovery.
Meditate on the heroism that emerged from the Pentagon after a plane slammed into the building that houses the core of our military.
Yes, we were bowed slightly but we did not surrender.
And, we will not surrender. Never. Ever.
This is the lesson of Sept. 11.
This is why we fly our nation’s standard proudly today.