Wake Up Call

By Beau Smith

That'll never happen to me....

That kinda' stuff doesn't happen here....

Those are things we've all said many times in our lives. Those are things we all believed were so true.

Then life comes to the door, knocks it down and enters our everyday world with a swift, harsh backhand to let us know...It CAN happen to us.

September 11, 2001 was one of the most beautiful weather days of the year here in West Virginia. Just like a Norman Rockwell painting come to life. I awoke to a very fresh breeze coming through the bedroom window and the sounds of birds singing. The sun was stepping over the house and trailing light with it. I felt good.

Our three dogs had invaded and taken over the bed after my wife had left for work earlier that morning. I shoved and pushed my way out of the bed through the sleeping dogs of all sizes to hit the bathroom and start my routine. They wanted no part of this "gettin' up and doing things" act I had going. They looked at me with disgust and went back to sleep.

After I let my toothbrush dance around in my mouth I walked down the hall to burn some toast and pick the fruit of the day. I usually do this in silence and then squint my way through the morning paper. But for some strange reason I turned on the TV that day. Don't know why. I never turn on the TV during a workday let alone in the morning. For some strange reason I did that day. It was 8:45 a.m.

I sat at the table and arranged the paper in my regular reading order, sports, car ads, life and then front page. Some news babe on TV was talking in a very...different tone. One used when something very bad has happened. I looked up to see a shot of The World Trade Center in New York City. Bright and sunny there, just like here. Then I saw a plane crash into one of the towers.

"What the hell?" found it's way out of my mouth as I got up to look closer. Yup...it was a plane. It wrecked right into the tower. This wasn't one of the fun B-Action movies that I watch late at night. This was real life. Real time. Right now. The news babe said that it looked like a plane had hit the tower by accident. That's what I thought as well, then came the second plane.

This was no accident.

The news babe followed up with the same conclusion. "Terrorist act" were the next words out of her mouth and my mind. It was so hard to believe that this was happening on such a beautiful day. The shit had hit the fan and it was splattering all over America. None of us were unsoiled from the stench of an evil act. At this point my mind had jumped into overdrive with questions. Who did it? Why? How? Then the sub-plot of questions fell into line. Were my buddies in New York okay? Is this just the start? Will bombs follow?

I started locating all my family members in my head. I called my wife at work to see if she knew; Called my mom for the same. Eyes stuck to the TV screen like gum on the bottom of a shoe. Then the word comes across about Washington, D.C. and the Pentagon. This was more than a major deal.

I scanned all the channels to find what I thought had the best shots and the most info. I was dug in for info. The news also came in about the plane going down in Pa. Didn't take long to figure that it had a destination with destruction, but something happened to mess that up. Later we all find out that some very ordinary people stepped up in an extraordinary situation and did something very brave and heroic.

Something that would cost them their lives and save so many more on the ground.

That day I saw the Twin Towers fall. Part of the Pentagon smashed. A plane full of heroes stops evil from finding its mark. In a way I felt this must be how it was back when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Granted, today we had a media blitz and got the news quicker, but there must have been some shared feelings.

I felt so very bad for all of those people in the towers, the Pentagon and the flight over Pa. who had gone to work or a trip on a beautiful, normal day and lost their lives within a place that they felt safe and comfortable on a daily basis. I felt bad for the ones left behind that lost those loved ones. No one could have ever known. This couldn't happen here in America, in our country. This kinda' stuff only happened in other places far away in countries with names that are really hard to pronounce. Not here. Not in America.

Later in the day when shock and sadness moved from the front seat of my mind to rest from the day's events.... anger stepped in and grabbed the steering wheel. Pissed Off was in the co-pilot's chair and they were headed down the interstate of vengeance with the pedal to the metal.

I was looking for someone to blame. Someone to release justice on in a swift and harsh manner. I was looking for the bad guys. But unlike WWI, WWII, the Korean War and even Vietnam, there was no foe that was going to show himself and do battle in a manly way. We were fighting shadows this time. Vermin that crept out under the dark of night struck and then ran back down into their hole. This was to be a fight like no other before. To fight this war we had to use methods that had been denied to us during a wave of castrating political correctness. We couldn't fight the nasty unless we got nasty ourselves. If we can't fight nasty then we won't win.

Not this time. This isn't chess or even checkers. This is a war where we not only have to roll up our sleeves, but we have to get in the sewer and swim with the rats.

This war on terrorism isn't about sanctions and policy. This isn't a war where each skirmish will be watched and monitored on CNN. This is a war where we must and will do things that the general public will never hear about. Our lives are gonna change. They have to change if we want the life of our children's children to be one that is safe and protected. We should strive to give them that same safe feeling that we grew up with. We're gonna have to tighten more than our belts for this one. We're gonna have to tighten security and tighten the places where these animals hide. Evil has violated our home and fled back into its hole. Now we must meet evil. We must crawl into that very hole after them. We have to pull them out by their tail and see that they never... NEVER get the chance to do anything like this again.

Since 9-11-01 American has become more alert. We value our beautiful days more. We even cast more appreciation on those days when it's not so nice outside. We're not only going to make it harder for terror to ruin our beautiful days, we're going to make sure every day is a bad day for those that provide terror against the world.

Their days are numbered and they're not pretty.

9-11-01 was our wake up call.

Beau Smith
The Flying Fist Ranch 2-22-02

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