Today

I'm not "getting over it". I'm not "moving on".

I drive past the Pentagon each and every work day. People I worked with have had to take the anthrax antidote. My mail at work had to be irradiated before I could open it.

The uncertainty and fear of that unforgettable day are gone. Even if I don't know specific faces, I know in a general way who the enemies are. I also understand that they want to hurt my family, and the more brutal the method the better in their eyes.

I mourn every innocent life lost, and I celebrate every terrorist death, although none of them can die slowly enough to satisfy me. I also rejoice in the fact that for every victim murdered, for every soldier that makes the ultimate sacrifice, many many more of them have died. They may be many, with new volunteers recruited every day, but attrition is on our side.

We are winning.

I'm going to spend today with my wife and kids. We're going to do ordinary things. Not because we want to go back to the obliviousness of the pre-9/11 world, but because we refuse to let those bastards take even a single day of our lives away from us. That's part of winning too.

Posted by Ted at September 11, 2004 01:02 AM
Category: Square Pegs