On 9/11 I posted an article that referred to the Koran and a quote from Chapter 9, Verse 11 that predicted this unspeakable tragedy years ago. I just received a really nice note from another author on Author's Den who is very knowledgeable about the Koran, and that verse, sent to me through email, does not exist. So I removed the entire article because without the quote from the Koran, it lacked the impact I had hoped for. It portrayed the United States as the Eagle that took down the enemy in Iraq. I thought it was extremely profound and I was more than a bit disappointed that this part of my article was fabricated by someone seeking a dramatic ending. If I've offended anyone, I'm sorry.

In adding to this article, the one thing that sticks in my mind from 911, is the sight of the married couple who held hands and jumped from one of the Twin Towers to escape a raging inferno. To me, this was the biggest sacrifice any couple could make. The idea of one dying without the other was unfathomable. So they died together. Every year I receive calendars from a police organization in Washington with photos of heroes from that day. I pay for it, but I can never hang it up. I don't think the pain will ever end for a lot of people.

My son is a Correction's Officer at Rikers Island in NYC. He's in transportation, transporting prisoners to prisons upstate, to court, to hospitals. That day he wasn't allowed to take his bus out due to the tragedy. He and other officers were standing outside staring at the plane stuck in the top of one of the Towers and they were dumbfounded. They imagined a movie was being made, that it couldn't be real. Then the second plane hit and they went into shock. That day when the buses went out it was to bring emergency items to the site and to carry bodies to a makeshift morgue. He knew a lot of the cops who'd sacrificed themselves. And this memory will never go away.

And God I hope it doesn't. Because now the government is paying attention. The lacksadaisical attitude is gone. Like the old saying goes--although not in these words--if we don't pay attention to the past, it's bound to repeat itself.