10 Years Later

Today we went to the Sandy City Healing Field Display 9/11 Memorial. 

In Sandy, right by Cooper's office is the Healing Field Display.  Over 3,000 Flags all lined up in the greenbelt in front of Sandy City Hall representing each life lost on September 11, 2001.  Last week when they were setting it up, I was driving by and I thought to myself, "Wow.  That's really cool that they are doing that.  I should stop and take a picture." But then I kept driving and running errands-- bringing lunch to Cooper, running to target, and running errands by the mall.  I drove by probably 10 times and still didn't stop to take a picture.  Today, we decided that we would go.

Each flag has a tag and a story about the person the flag represents.

It is one thing to read the statistics of how many lives were lost ten years ago.  I admit, I have thought, "wow... over 3,000 people.  That's a lot.  So sad." and that's all.  It wasn't until I walked through all of the flags today to see and feel just how many people that is.  The sheer magnitude of the number of people that lost their lives came into perspective when all I saw around me was flags.  

Looking South, flags for every person who died in the World Trade Center.

And looking north, flags for every person who died in the Pentagon, and on Flight 93, Flight 77, Flight 175, and Flight 11.  

It was incredibly emotional.  Cooper and I both fought back tears (though I don't know if Cooper will admit that... haha.) as we all walked though the flags and read various stories. 

Afterwards we had to explain to Marcus (in kid-friendly terms) about what these flags were about and what happened on September 11, 2001.  He had lots of questions about it and we tried to answer them the best we could.  I know that he doesn't "get" it and he won't for a long time.  But I think that it was a good learning experience for him and for Cooper and I as parents in teaching our children this important piece of American history. Seeing as he wasn't even born ten years ago, he is too young to actually remember, but not too young to learn.  I'm glad that we were able to talk about it with him and remember ourselves. 

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In case you have been living in a cave for the past twelve hours...

Oh wait, he wasn't in a cave.

...Anyways.

I am sure that you have seen the news that Osama bin Laden has been killed by US armed forces... if not you can look here. Or here. Or here. Or here.  Try Here, here, here and here. Oh, here too...Well, because this IS NEWS... I thought I HAD to blog SOMETHING about this happening.  But, it's plastered all over your TV, the radio, the newspapers... So here is me blogging about it too.  (kinda.)

...Last night when we were listening to this news, I could not help but think back to my favorite part of Robin Williams: Live on Broadway....

***WARNING:  This is NOT The Genie from Disney's Aladdin Robin Williams.  

...This is F-bomb dropping fowl mouthed dirty old man doing stand-up Robin Williams...

DO NOT HATE ME FOREVER if you are offended by the F-bomb, just then, please don't watch!***

(Again, before watching, turn down or pause the background music 

by scrolling down to the playlist and pressing pause before listening!)

For those of you that ARE offended by the F-bomb, or who have small children reading over your shoulder, I will give you highlights of the best parts...cleanly.  Ish.

"In A jihad, you kill an infidel, which I'm sad to say, is all of us, and you yourself die...You go to heaven, and you are greeted by 71 dark haired virgins.  . . .  Recently, there was an article in the New York Times that Qur'an scholar says the translation is not 71 dark haired virgins, but 71 crystal clear raisins.  Slight difference in interpretation really!  

. . . No!  And Imagine, some guy blows himself up and goes to the gates of heaven and says,

"Where are my (expletive that begins with B)?!"  

"Here are your raisins!"  

Or 71 Virgils goin, "You gotta pretty mouth." 

Or one day, you get Osama bin Laden and he goes to the gates heaven and there is George Washington waiting going, "How dare you defile that which we created." And starts wailing on his (three letter expletive that starts with A).  70 other members of the Continental Congress come down and start kicking the (four letter expletive that ends with --it) out of him and he is going, 

"What is this?!  Where are the Virgins!?"

"71 VIRGINIANS, YOU (three letter expletive again)-HOLE!"

He he he... 71 Virginians... 

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