never forget

Two months ago, me and the fam were in New York City. We were taking a cruise around lower Manhattan when I spotted the World Trade Center. I pulled out my iPhone and began to take pictures of it. The Freedom Tower looked almost complete.

My oldest son, Deion, look at me taking the pictures and he saw the look in my eyes.

He said..."Dad, why are they building it again? Someone may just come back and knock it down again?"

I love it when kids ask me these type of questions because these are what I call "teaching moments."

He has no memories of the day because he was only two years old at the time. He only knows what we've told him and what he seen on TV. 

He didn't know that I watched a plane fly through that building live on TV. 

He didn't know that just a year before the attacks I was in that building. 

He also didn't know that when i was a kid, I used to stare out of my grandmothers apartment window in Newark New Jersey at the New York City skyline and the World Trade Center. 

And he'll never know the pain and hurt that we felt as a country to have that happen on US soil.

I said..."This building HAS be rebuilt. People all over the world have to understand that that will never happen again. It will never stop us as a country. Never let someone come into your backyard and hit you and you just let it go. We learned and grew from that experience. But you never forget."

He nodded and smiled.

I did too. Another lesson taught.