Today is a day of remembrance in the USA, my grandfathers generation had Pearl Harbor, my parents the day JFK was shot, I have seared into my memory what I was doing when first I learned of the attack on the towers. I was getting ready to sow alfalfa, got into my pickup and was only halfway listening to the radio when I heard the phrase "where the twin towers use to stand", This caught my attention. Back into the house, on went the TV. I sat in front of the television for 5 hours. First off was the report that 50000 body bags had been ordered, 5 more planes were unaccounted for, the news had all sorts of additional attacks coming. By evening the death toll estimate had dropped to 10000, the actual figure was bad enough. Somewhere along the way, someone decided we would have a gasoline shortage, my mother called me at about 3 pm to suggest frantically I order a load of diesel, I called my supplier and he said it would be the same price the next day it had been the day before, not everyone was so honest, some gas stations tripled the price or more, and both of our local stations sold out, gas lines in a town of 900, something I never thought I'd see. People who bothered to look up that morning saw a strange sight, airplanes turning around in the sky, puzzling to cowboys gathering cattle who didn't know any different. Several days were spent with not one plane in sight, something I had never seen in my lifetime. Several locals on vacation were stranded.
We were humbled by the world rallying to our cause at the time, we were pretty shaken, we are not afraid of a fight in the USA, but we have to know who to fight. 6 years later all I can say is we have not been hit again, although our government constantly reminds us it is just a matter of time, and next time will probably be worse. Regardless of the way anyone reading this feels, it is very hard from my farm in Kansas to understand what it is about my country and its people that would inspire others to kill themselves in order to kill as many of us as possible. I can't believe we are really that bad.