ADDICTED TO GENRE BENDING: God Bless America

Who wants to talk about books when Enemy #1 is now dead????? I'm so proud to be an American. Hard to believe it has been almost ten years since our beautiful twin towers fell. One of America's darkest days. I'll never forget. I was working at a pediatric clinic the morning it happened and we all rushed into a conference room to watch on tv. I remember watching the towers fall. Total disbelief.

I also remember that no one really knew what the hell was happening. Even driving home after work, I felt like we were at war, that even Dallas, Texas could be bombed at any moment. Planes were falling out of the freaking sky. How many planes? Bad news just kept coming on that fateful day. I remember the country being glued to the television for months. Everyone was in zombie mode. Our world was changed forever. I remember hearing comments on television by people living in the UK, strange comments, almost cruel....now Americans knew what it felt like to be attacked on their own soil. Like welcome to the club. Hello...what the hell was Pearl Harbor? Oh, not on the mainland. Wow. So now we know. Nearly 3,000 lives were lost.

I knew of one girl who died in the Twin Towers. She worked for a music magazine, a dream job. A beautiful girl with her entire future ahead of her. I met her once. She was my first husband's best man's wife. I remember sitting with her in a bar back in the 90's on a night out.

We chatted about dieting, the same things women gab about all the time. This girl didn't look like she needed to lose a pound but her husband was a bean pole. She laughed and said she just wanted to weigh less than her husband. That's how I remember her, laughing and joking as a band played and our husbands talked. Normal American life on a double date. She died that day. She and her husband were separated at the time. He never heard from her again. No one knew for sure but she never went home. He had to take care of her apartment, her dog. Pick up the pieces. She was gone. Just vanished in thin air. No body. No burial.

Yet Osama bin Laden was given a sea burial. His death will never bring back those we lost on 9-11 but perhaps his demise will help give closure, help us on this eternal road to healing.

May 1st is also the day Hitler's death was announced to the world. Strange.

I loved seeing Americans rejoicing everywhere; ground zero, George Bush's home here in Dallas...on a New York subway, riders sang the National Anthem at midnight.

Our Navy Seals kicked ass!!!!

My heart goes out to the poor wife of OBL who was killed during the raid. She was a victim too. Can you imagine being in her shoes? God be with her. But there were many other women and children in OBL's compound there during the raids. I'm glad they were not injured. Job well done, Navy Seals!!!

Some shudder at the logos now gracing t-shirts or even Facebook avatars, like the Statue of Liberty with OBL's head in her hand or shirts that say, "Ding Dong, the bin is Dead!" Remember, he brought terrible death and destruction to our world, killing close to 3,000 people. To those who say it is morbid..and you know who you are....think back to that day. A beautiful cloudless, sunny autumn day when the Grim Reaper ripped through the sky, bringing the country to its knees.

But guess what, we're standing proud today! God Bless America!!! God Bless that Navy Seals Team! God Bless the souls lost on that sad day!