The Day After

Hi,

First off, I'd like to thank my lovely wife Carolyn for inviting me to post on her blog.

I'm writing this post a day after the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to make several points. Some of you may be looking at your calendars right now, thinking: "Wow, yesterday was the 11th anniversary of 9/11...it's been 11 years?". Yes, a decade plus one year. The date doesn't have as much impact in 2012 as it did in 2002.

But this is what I really noticed: In all my life, I have never seen the country more united than I did the day after 9/11/2001. There were no Democrats, no Republicans, no Christians, no Atheists, no straights, no gays, no 1%, no 99%. We were all just Americans. We were united as a people, because someone hurt our own, in our home.

Now it's 11 years and a day later, and in my life I've never seen the country MORE divided than it is right now. Everyone has an opinion, stance or cause and chances are it conflicts with yours.  And boy, if there is a disagreement, how the hate spews. Eleven years ago, an enemy hurt us. Now we just hurt ourselves. I hope and pray it's not going to take more loss of innocent American lives to make people realize that united we stand, divided we will fall.

Thanks for reading.

-Ted