This is a prayer. Today is 9/11. It has been 19 years since the Twin Towers were taken down in Manhattan and the Pentagon was attacked inside the Capital Beltway. And then the passengers on a plane forced it to crash before it could reach the Washington, D.C. and the Nation's Capitol. I have spent the morning on the phone with First Responders who were in NYC on the day of this attack. I was also there.

It was a perfect fall day in New York. The sky was a clear, deep blue. a few high fluffy white clouds drifted overhead. The air was fresh, with no traces of cloying summer humidity. The kind of weather that reminds you that in a few weeks the trees will be glorious in reds and golds, celebrating. This was the scene all the way down the east coast to Washington. Beauty. Peace. SHATTERED!!

The intentional destruction was not immediately recognized. My first thought, "Oh my God! The pilot had a heart attack." is echoed in some way in the thoughts of everyone I know. The truth never entered anyone's mind. The truth was indeed unthinkable. The United States of America had sustained a direct attack. And then the attack was multiplied. Terrorism at large.

The response to Ground Zero was my first actual Disaster Response. My love and respect for my fellows expanded with every minute I
was there. So many more help freely than destroy. The human race is a reservoir of decency, courage, love and help. All the truly fine qualities you can imagine are native to our race.

Take a moment. Say a prayer. Envision a peaceful future. Remember and then step forward. All of us, of whatever faith, race, or ethnicity and wherever we are on the planet, are creating our mutual future everyday. "But nobody has said that life was a calm and orderly thing:it isn't. One isn't a tattered leaf nor a grain of sand: one can, to a greater or lesser degree draw his road map and follow it."L. Ron Hubbard. www.thewaytohappinee.org @waytohappinesstampa

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