I’ve written about this date before. I know I’ve written about it once or twice in the past 8 years. Those are the posts that I’ve allowed to remain on this site. There’s a reason for that.

September 11, 2001 is the birth date of my nieces, my sister’s twin daughters. The horror of what happened to almost 3,000 people in a single day is almust surreal. The exceptions are few from that day: freaking out because I couldn’t reach my uncle and aunt in Lower Manhattan by phone for over an hour, then realizing that he had no idea what was happening outside (at the time, my aunt was dying from emphysema and they had other things on their minds than the end of the outside world); trying to find Evil Dad, and seeing if he’d be allowed to even come home that day; gratitude that the twins’ father wasn’t on his usual flight to Detroit that morning.

Does anyone know what happened to Osama bin Laden? You remember him – the person actually responsible for the coordination and funding of the attacks on that day? Me neither. More importantly, nobody seems to care anymore – except maybe the families of the dead.

Finally, if anybody has any doubts about the statement “religion kills”, just remember what happened 8 years ago in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and a field just below Jennerstown.

And yet…the only thing that matters to me are those babies. They’re 8 today. They’ll be having a party at school, a dinner with most of the family tonight (damn, how I wish we could be there), and a big party complete with a bouncy castle tomorrow for 6 of their friends.