Do You Remember?

It is interesting how certain songs on the radio remind me of something. Everytime I hear "Keep On Rockin' Me Baby" by the Steve Miller Band I think of sitting in my high school cafeteria eating lunch. Each time I hear the Eagles singing "Witchy Woman" I am back in that dingy roller skating rink in Brookings, Oregon in the early seventies.

Whenever the date September 11 rolls around I recall that I was out in the woods somewhere between Pendleton and John Day chasing elk with a stick and a string and wasn't aware until late evening that this tragedy had even taken place. I was enjoying the freedoms that living in this country affords me and had no idea that somewhere in the "Land of the Free" there were men and women coming to grips with the idea that this is also the "Home of the Brave".

When we got back to camp, we heard from one of our companions who had chosen to refrain from the evening hunt and had decided to turn on the radio in one of the vehicles that our country had been attacked by a yet unknown enemy. Boy! That took the wind out of our sails. It was interesting to me that to a man, we each decided to pull up stakes and head home the next day. Somehow, fun wasn't that important anymore and we each needed to get home to our families.

Ok. Time has rubbed the edges off the the wound a bit but I hope that we never forget how the country came together against a common enemy for a time. Let's rekindle that kind of passion again. Though the injury was grievious, that was a remarkable period in our history and I miss the singlemindedness that grew from it.