I will never forget!

Tomorrow will be the 9th Anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001, where terrorist barbarians callously attacked this nation, using commercial airliners as missiles to destroy the World Trade Center, attack the Pentagon, and attempt to attack the White House or Capitol, but because of the brave souls aboard United Flight 93, that did not happen. On that day, nearly 3000 were killed by those terrorists wishing to do our country harm.

Americans will never forget those who died and were simply going about their lives, as they had done every day before then. Americans will also never forget the sacrifices of our soldiers who stood up to make sure that we never see attacks like this on our soil, ever again! In those days following the attacks, we as a country were reeling, but we held together, had a strong leader guiding us through and rebounded from this act of war committed on our homeland.

This day is also quite culturally significant. Americans believed, prior to this day, that they were protected as a result of geographic location compared to the rest of the world, American strength and stature and a lack of hostile nations since the end of the Cold War. Since that day, we, as a society have become more cognizant of the world around us, our personal safety and our fellow man's personal safety. Even more important, I believe this day has major cultural ramifications that are still yet to come. As I have previously blogged about, this day will force Americans, particularly Gen-Xers, who were just starting their lives on 9-11-01, to rise up and lead, so that they may be the protectors of our values, history and way of life. Personally, living through this day and the subsequent events, inspired me to write The Calling to Lead, using my belief that Gen-Xers will transform into the "9-11 Generation" that will rise to lead this nation, as a backbone to the story.

Tomorrow, I ask you to take a moment out of your day to privately reflect and/or pray for those lost and those who have given of themselves to protect our nation since that day.

May God Bless those lost, the families of those lost and the United States of America!