September 11, 2001

Almost every American remembers what they were doing and where they were on September 11, 2001. So many innocent lives lost. So many valiant heroes lost. These losses - by human understanding - seemingly too much to bear.

A couple of days later, I watched our President George W. Bush stand at Ground Zero utilizing a megaphone to give an extemporaneous speech. I remember thinking he should fire his speechwriters because he was a much better speaker without them. He promised all Americans that he would assuredly avenge our unspeakable losses and punish those criminals responsible for these atrocious crimes.

I believed him. I knew those responsible would pay for their evil deeds. You would have never convinced me then that seven years later, as we are paying our respects to those who lost their lives on that dreadful day, the leader of those criminals would not be captured.

In the past seven years, America has invaded a sovereign nation, dismantled their dictatorship and assisted in the capture, trial, conviction and execution of their dictator. Then we assisted this country in forming a democracy. Quite an accomplishment until you look at the number of more American heroes lost. Once again, losses too much to bear.

And yet, we cannot capture or find the leader of the criminals responsible for the worst attack on Americans in the history of our great nation.

We are Americans. We will never forget. We are still waiting . . .