Remembering

Before I get to something I've been waiting to write about all week, I want to tell you about my day. In a word: Awesome! Today we had our "Extreme Dodgeball Challange" for Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Fort Wayne and the turn out was fantastic. We had about 60 teams to participate so we raised in the neighborhood of $2,000 for the Bigs just off registration fees. On the off chance that you participated and you're reading this, I want to say thank you for participating. We truly could not have done this without your help.

Tomorrow's day two of my "long but fun weekend!" Cedar Point is going to be so much fun and I can't wait to experience it; I just hope my fat ass can fit on the coasters! Mandie's going to get to go as well so I'm really happy about that. I've really missed her and I can't wait to see her in the morning. I have a feeling that it's going to be an awesome day. :-)

Now, for what I've been wanting to write about all week.

"Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?" Allen Jackson poses that question in his hit song about what happened three years ago today and it really makes me think every time I hear it. I'll never forget where I was on September 11, 2001. I woke up to my former program director, David Day, on the air saying that something had happened at the World Trade Center and they were just getting information about it. I laid in my bed, motionless at his words. Then he came back on and said that it had been confirmed that a plane had hit one of the "Twin Towers." It was at that moment I went to turn my TV on, just in time to see the second plane hit. I was shocked. I sat on my couch for a while just staring at the television. I was in total disbelief. I had the usual thoughts, "how could this happen?" "Is this for real?" Then I saw that a plane hit the Pentegon and heard that a fourth plane was headed or Washington, DC. Eventually I decided to get up and go to the station in case they needed to help with news gathering.

When I got to the station everyone had a look of shock and disbelief on their faces. All five of our stations had various news feeds airing so those of us who weren't on the air at the time gathered in the conference room to watch the news. As more and more images filled our screen we started getting reports from around town that gas stations had raised their gas prices and people were essentially in a panic. Fleetwood (former PD of WZKS, one of my former sister stations) and I decide to ride around and take a look. As far as the signs went, gas prices were normal but people, in fact, in a panic. I had never seen anything like that in my life.

It finally came time for my air shift and I was told to air any news items that seemed relevant, not to say much and to keep everything flowing as best as possible. Honestly, not much music was played during the Jonathan Show that night, but it seemed like any music I did play was sad in nature. I sat there, taking some phone calls and talking to people about it. Utter disbelief was the general mood of people in the Twin States. I, too, was in utter disbelief.

That day is also the only day that I've cried on the air. As radio personalities, we're not really supposed to do that but I'd say that I was justified that night. President Bush was about to speak to the nation and we were going to carry it live. The song ended and I had about a minute until the President spoke. I'll never forget what I said: "Q101, Today's Best Music, it's Jonathan and today is a day that I'm having great difficulty with, just as I'm sure you are. As a radio personality, it's part of my job to come up with words to describe things that are happening in entertainment and the world in general. Tonight I just can't. There are no words to describe how I'm feeling about this." That's when I started crying. I closed with "And now, the President of the United States. God bless America."

I went back to my place after I got off the air and I read Psalm 23, prayed, cried somemore and finally fell asleep. That weekend I went to visit my family, hugged them extra close and appreciated the time I spent with them a little more than usual. That, not to mention everything else I've been through in life, made me fully understand that I should never take life for granted and that I should appreciate each day as a gift from God. If there was ever a reminder that things can be over in an instant, it was 9/11.

On my way back from the dodgeball tournament, I saw someone driving a car riddled with liberal propaganda stickers. The one that really pissed me off said "Nothing Accomplished." I wish I could have had five minutes alone with that hippie (yes, he looked like a hippie). I would have explained to him just what we've accomplished: A mad man is not overlord of his country anymore. People are free, for the first time ever, to do as they please within the confines of the law. People don't have to be afraid to speak their minds for fear that they'll have their heads cut off. And that's just in Iraq, I'm not even including Afghanistan.

I would also liked to have reminded him of who has faught and died for his right to put those stickers on his beater.

I can't stand how the liberals blame President Bush for the attacks, about how he could have prevented the attacks, etc. I don't know what you've been smokin' but you need to get off it. This would have happened no matter who the President was (even if it was your precious, intern bangin' hero). Funny, no one blamed Clinton when the Cole was attacked. But I do wonder what would have been said if "Bore" were in office when 9/11 happened. Of course, our military would have been so weak under him, we wouldn't have responded.

Osama is on the run like a little girl who was caught playing doctor with the neighbor boy in the back yard. To you looney liberals, I have bad news for you: We will catch him. And I only wish I was in the military and was lucky enough to be the soldier who finds him hiding out in his rat hole. I'd love to go toe-to-toe with that son of a bitch. In the words of Toby Keith: "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way."

For those of you who have forgotten what we're fighting for, let me remind you, using information obtained from the State Department:

World Trade Center 2,823 (includes airline passengers)
Pentagon 125 (not including plane victims)
Flight 11 92 people on board
Flight 175 64 people on board
Flight 77 64 people on board
Flight 93 44 people on board

All of those people who died, their families and loved ones: That's who we're fighting for. Our military is also fighting hard for you and me so that we'll hopefully never have to experience anything like those who died in the attacks experienced. Have you really forgotten? I certainly haven't.

There were a few good things that came out of 9/11. The obvious ones were a new found appreciation for our emergency workers but the main one I'm thinking of is the fact that heroes exist and don't necessarially wear a uniform. The passangers who rushed the cockpit on Fight 93 showed us all what determination and selfless sacrifice can achieve. The certainly did not die in vain, indeed they probably saved hundereds, possibly thousands, of lives. The plane they were on was heading toward Washington and could have hit the Capital building, the White House or another building where many people were gathered.

Not fighting the war on terrorism would be saying that they died in vain. Do we really want that?

The way our grandparents feel/felt about the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, 1941 is the way we will feel about September 11, 2001 when we're in our 60's and 70's. I will never forget that day and I hope that you never will either. Let's not allow these people to die in vain. "Let's roll!"

--Jonathan