User blog:Ramikad Galaxywave/9/11 "Never Forget"

9/11. I was only two that year and had no idea about the experience of losing so much and still be able to live with myself knowing that. However, I learned over the years (mostly at school) that this was the most devastating blow in modern American history. At 2,975 civilian casualties and many more soon after, this event topped the amount of deaths at Pearl Harbor.

Today was the first time my school's JROTC program held a ceremony for both flag retirement and for giving two American flags to present to my principal. My school was, unfortunately, the only one in our entire county (there's roughly 12 other high schools in our county) to do something honorable. This made me feel proud for my school, but it also made me hate the others for their lack of respect. Our school was given two flags: one with all the names of the people who were killed and one with the names of the first responders.

At the ceremony, we held the private flag retirement, in which no videos or photos were to be taken (it's part of the proper way of retiring an American flag). We were told by the person who gave our school the two flags that this event was one much like Pearl Harbor in that it was a "where were you when?" sort of event. He explained that he hoped our generation would never have to deal with something like this in our lifetimes.

So, my question is not "where were you when the 9/11 attack occured?". Instead, it's "What did you do today to honor and give respect to the lives that were lost that day?"