I've waited five years to right this article, and it has been a hard five years.

I am an Average American, nothing special about me. I go to work 5-6 days a week, 12 months a year save the occasional vacation or three day weekend. My God is my own, and is worshipped in private for I choose not to push it, whether the official dogma of my religion says I should or not, I do not for my own reasons. My family is like any other in America these days, a group of people I care for dearly, though many are not related to me by any blood, they are still my family. The point to this little description is simple, I am what those people who died on 9/11/2001 were, average everyday people doing their job, loving their families and dealing with their own problems.

The people who died on 9/11/2001 died for one reason and one reason only, they went to work that day. They were not targeted individually but as a collective representation of what radical Islam would like to do to all infidel Americans. It is for this reason that I hope they never try to make 9/11 a holiday. We should not take 9/11 off like we do the birthday's of MLK, (funny that in America where racism is still the battle cry of the NAACP and the ACLU that only one man's birthday is celebrated by itself and that man was black. No other individual man or woman except Jesus Christ is celebrated in America anymore, not even those men who have held the highest office in the land, all have been consolidated into one day, just a note I thought I would fit in here somewhere) or President's Day, and we should not gather together at a park and play Frisbee and barbecue like we do for Memorial Day as we celebrate the freedom those fallen soldiers have given us and continue to give us every day.

We should not get together at the homes of our parents and exchange gifts or have a fancy meal , one which we prepare maybe at one or two other special occasions, and we should not point fingers at people on this day claiming we know all there is to know about the subject while we stand at the water cooler.

What should we do to commemorate this day? We should work. We should get to work five minutes early and stay five minutes late. We should work through our lunch hour, skip our breaks and give just a little more than we normally do. We should celebrate the lives of those we lost by emulating what they did that day; go to work and work hard. We should take a moment near the appointed time of day that all this went down on 9/11/2001 and pledge quietly to ourselves that what we are able to do today is more than they are able to do today, so we will carry their load, if only for today.

They were the best America had to offer, the brightest, the funniest, the most giving and the most lovable. Each one has a family member who would tell you this about any one of them. They were good Americans, and some not even American, several of those who died that day were foreigners here in America working right along side our nations best and they too should be remembered on this day for like those Americas we lost, they too were living the dream, supporting their families and doing their level best to be a part of this American family.

So Monday, September 9th, 2006 I urge you to give a little more of yourself at work, then again that night when you return home. In that one single act you will be fulfilling the day over 3000 people will never get a chance to finish, you will return to your family and end your day with those you care most about and you will be surrounded by those who love you most.

I write this as an American who did not lose a loved one on 9/11/2001. But what I gained on 9/11 was incredible. I learned in one swift moment that life can be gone in a flash.  By remembering those who died in this way I remind myself and show others that I have not forgotten them, although I never knew them. Their deaths will not be in vain in my house, nor should they in yours.

But what would I know; I'm just an Average American.