A Special CleggThis

As you all know, today marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Like all of you, I can remember exactly where I was on that day and can recite probably to the hour where I was, who I was with and what I as thinking. So much has happened since that day in each of our lives in is sometimes hard to comprehend what happened. Today I am, probably like many of you, watching the coverage of the memorials and am continually getting choked up at each moment of silence for each horrific event.

Why am I writing this? You could have gone to a million blogs, articles, videos, etc. to read and reflect on your experiences of 9/11, and I encourage you to do so. I guess I am writing this for a couple reasons, one, to say I can't even comprehend being as close to that day as someone who lost a love one, whether that be on 9/11 or in the military fighting for our freedoms abroad. To those who have, I thank you. Your courage and the courage of your family means more than words can say.

The second reason is to say thank you to my community. When I say community I don't mean your town or your neighborhood, I mean whatever community is the one that surrounds you. Lately it seems as though the concerns of most people are the ones that directly effect themselves. Instead, we should be concerned about our community. That community could be your family, your colleagues, your friends, your town, really anything that involves the people around you. No matter what, you will always be part of a community and don't forget that, be thankful that you are and recognize that.

The third is to hopefully garner a feeling that the country felt immediately after 9/11. We banded together, flags waved and the small things that didn't matter melted away and we were all the same. No race, no religion, no status, just Americans. Hopefully we can get a little of that back today and hopefully it carries, not only until the 20th anniversary, but indefinitely.

When I sat down to write this, for some reason I thought of this clip from Conan O'Brien. I actually thought his closing line was "if you work hard and are good to people, you will be successful" and my thought was, well, that line is incomplete. (as you can read that isn't exactly what he said.) What it really should say is that if you work hard and are good to people, WE will be successful. And that is what I want to leave you with today.