An Adventure in Remembrance

We urge you to check out Project 2996, a memorial project for the victims of 9/11.

This very wet, dark Friday has not in any way resembled the hot, clear Tuesday eight years ago, when 2,996 people were called home to God after terrorists hijacked four planes.

Randy and I did not know each other back then, and our experiences of 9/11 were very different - but we remember some of the same things. Randy was on a work trip and on the road when word came. I was in the student union at the University of North Texas, studying German. We both recall the way the skies emptied over Texas. We both remember the shock, the grief, and the resolve in the days that followed.

Eight years later, we both find it hard to believe that it has been so long since that day. The world changed so irrevocably for our generation, and we have often felt like we're living in a long aftershock.

Despite the wet, our flag is flying, and we wish we had a way to put it at half-staff. Eight years has not done much to soften the blow; we are all too aware of danger now. The "news alert" sound makes my heart jump, my breath catch; our cellphones are always within reach. On our honeymoon, we were detained and patted down at LAX, because of a security rule enacted in the wake of 9/11 and the shoebomber. And no matter what small fears creep into our lives in the wake of that horrific day, they pale in comparison to the fear some people deal with every day, because of men not unlike those who were responsible for 9/11.

Ian astaslem. We will not submit.

Never forget.