Ground Zero, Have you Forgotten??

This may have been my favorite part of the trip. Not that it was fun but that I finally got to see it and better understand. Maybe "understand" is not the right word. That's the problem there are no words to explain this and I don't think we will ever understand. When we got to ground zero we decided to take a tour. You listened to headphones with recorded messages. I was glad for this, it allowed you to be with yourself and take it all in and process it. I must admit at times that was hard and I found myself fighting tears throughout the whole experience.

This is the first thing we came to prior to seeing ground zero. How humbling, all those names, all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Even though it has almost been ten years it is still a very sacred place, very quiet and still even with the noise of all the construction. Its weird you don't notice the noise there is just silence.
On the tour they had people tell their stories. One that stands out most in my mind is a retired fireman whose son called him and told him to turn on the TV. He then sad dad I got to go we are being called in. He never spoke to his son again. We were told that they found close to 20,000 body parts but only were able to take out about 200 complete bodies. 3 months to the day on December 11 this man got a call and they said they had found his son and his body was whole. He was the only one who got this very special gift. When they found bodies or parts they treated all of them with great respect and each and every piece was given a small service right there before being taken out of the sight. I can't even begin to imagine being one of the people who worked so hard to bring loved ones peace of mind and how hard it must have been to do this day in and day out. Thanks to all those for their service and sacrifice, my heart goes out to all of you.

I will NEVER FORGET. I remember exactly where I was when I heard and how I felt. If that is all I can do is not forget, I PROMISE to do so.

This is the site where the towers once stood. The Freedom tower will rise again in its place and be even taller than the towers. There will also be two waterfalls that represent where the towers once stood and serve as a memorial to all those lost as well as those who died in the Twin Towers bombing back in 1996 (I think).

I am so blessed to live in America, even looking at what happened here I know how blessed I am. I will leave each day and try to never forget the freedoms I have and treasure them. I am so thankful for the experience I had here.