Remembering 9-11

President Bush dedicated the Pentagon Memorial to honor those who died on September 11, 2001 at the Pentagon. One of my best friends from high school, Christopher Newton, was on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon that day. The whole attack was surreal, but knowing I had a friend that perished that day, made it that more personal to me. He left behind a beautiful family. He had just moved his family to Virginia from California and was going back to California to wrap up some loose ends.

I was able to go to his memorial service and sing with the Silver Lute Singers, our old high school madrigal group. I still remember it vividly 7 years later. I was living in Louisiana at the time, and the President came to the Air Force Base that day staying away from Washington.

With this Memorial, we will be reminded of those events as the years pass away. I hope to go see it in person some day and honor Chris.

There is a bench for each fatality. If the person was in the building, his or her bench face the building. If the person was on the plane, the bench faces out to the sky. They placed the benches by age. The youngest was 3 years old, and the oldest was 71. Chris was 38 at the time. At night the benches light up and there is a reflecting pool under each bench. The trees are maple that turn bright red in the late fall. The wall around the memorial starts at 3 inches and ends at 71 inches, another symbol for the ages of the victims.

There are many memorials being held today in honor of the over 3000 killed by evil men. May the Lord bless all those who are in pain today and who have lost loved ones from evil acts and those who have died since then fighting for our right to live in freedom.