i was watching the morning news. it was right after the first tower was hit. i could not believe my eyes when i saw the second plane. i woke up my husband who was at the time working the night shift. he got up and watched it with me until time for him to go to work. because some of the attacks occured here in virginia we went into immediate state of emergency. our local bases jets were all in the air and the national guard 1/2 mile right up the road block the main road with barbed wire and armed guards. I went to school and got both of my children out and brought them home. we were terrrified. it was not until late that afternoon that we could take a breath. by then the jets had returned to base. the silence was deafning. I went outside and sat on my steps to just comtinplate what had occured. Then the elementary school age kids in the neighborhood got a small baseball game going in my neighbors yard. As i sat watching them i realized that even though i knew that nothing would be the same after what had happened I also knew that we would be fine and come out of this. You can do what you want to us but it will not change us. That is america to me.