Remembering 9/11

I am sure you remember where you were when you first heard about the 9/11 attacks.

I was in bed. Our alarm went off around 6:45 a.m. and, as usual, tuned to a radio station. As I hit snooze, I remember thinking that it seemed odd that the voice of Peter Jennings would be on this particular soft rock station. When the alarm sounded again nine minutes, I realized it was no fluke. It was Jennings covering the news that terrorists had flown planes into the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

Both my wife and I went to work that day. My wife, as a fourth grade teacher, had the tougher job of trying to explain to those kids what had happened and why someone would want to do harm to so many people.

Here at Pacific University, people were given the option to come into school or stay home. I came to work, but it was a very quiet day. What do you say to people when you see something like we saw in New York? I sat in the office most of the day glued to the television. I am not sure how productive I was that day.

On the way to the office today, the radio played clips of that day and reminders of the horror we all went through that day. I would be lying if I said I didn't get emotional hearing them again.

As we remember the 9/11 attacks seven years later, it seems only appropriate that our women's soccer team will be playing today. I will particularly think of that day when I see goalkeeper Erin Ichimura come out wearing the yellow No. 40 jersey.

Why 40? That was the jersey that former Pacific goalie Shannon Tillman had made after her cousin, Pat Tillman, was killed in combat in Afghanistan. Most everyone knows the story of Pat Tillman, the former Arizona State and Arizona Cardinals standout who gave up his pro football career after 9/11 to join the Army. He was later killed in Afghanistan in a friendly fire incident. Pat Tillman wore No. 40.

I got to know Shannon a little bit when she was here at Pacific. A media and theatre major, she was a very outgoing individual with a great view on life despite of what her family had been through. I always had a great desire to talk to her about Pat and even do a story about her cousin had affected her life, both before and after 9/11. I never had the courage to do it. I never had the courage to even talk to her about him. I wish I had...if anythng just to gain perspective.

I also knew of the Tillman family's desire not to speak to the media about Pat's death. While Shannon seemed to speak openly in public about Pat, I still respected it. Shannon tried to deal with it in her senior project, a play she wrote and directed called "And Pat Had A Brother..." Not surprisingly, this way of Shannon dealing with her cousin's death was publicly decried by the rest of Tillman family, which included letters in the local News-Times.

I am not sure where Shannon is these days, but I hope she is doing well and is successful in whatever she is doing. If you are reading this blog, drop me a line and say hi.

Whatever you are doing today, I hope you take time and pause to remember that horrible event seven years ago that changed our country and all of our lives.

Our women's soccer team will play today. Its a reminder to me that the terrorists didn't bring down America that day. We continue to win the battle against terrorism by continuing to work, play and live. God Bless America.