THOUGHTS 11 YEARS AFTER 9/11.....

      Just a day or two and the 11th anniversary of 9/11 will be upon us.  It doesn't seem possible that it's been over a decade since that attack.  Looking back, I remember getting a call from my daughter to turn on the TV....and there it was...an unbelievable picture of destruction and the loss of 3000 lives!  I watched a great deal of TV that day and the days/weeks that followed, caught up in the drama of that spectacle, somehow not wanting to believe that it had actually happen.

At the time, I wasn't fully aware of the effect that 9/11 had on me personally.   On October 3, 2001...less than 4 weeks after 9/11...I was admitted to Urgent Care at UCSD/Thorton Hospital for Atrial Flutter.  My heart rate was 145 and they initially couldn't bring it down.  In the weeks that followed, I underwent a Cardioversion procedure, and later a Radio Frequency Ablation procedure to correct the Atrial Flutter.  Since that time and up to the present I've not experienced any heart problems. (Thank you God!)

     I'm sure that the 9/11 incident has affected us all in various ways.  Whether medically, psychologically, or personally, it has left its mark on our people.  Before 9/11, how many times did we think of the words terror, terrorism or terrorist?   How often did you look at someone of a Middle Eastern race and wonder if they were terrorist?  Did you ever go up into a skyscraper and feel at risk?   How many times have you not felt personally secure in your surroundings?  Do you have dreams about 9/11?  Do you carefully consider the people who are on your plane flight?

    But as President Obama said in his Saturday radio address:  "Instead of pulling back from the world, we strengthened our alliances while improving our security here at home"..."instead of turning on each other, we've resisted the temptation to give in to mistrust and suspicion.".."instead of changing who we are, the attacks have brought out the best in the American people."

    So...read the article below, and decide for yourself....is the United States stronger now after 9/11?

Obama: The U.S. is stronger, 11 years after 9/11