This came to me in my mail box from a special woman with a beautiful smile... she is certainly not NO ONE SPECIAL... This made Me cry, but deep down it does ring true...

Who am I?

• I am no one special.
• I'm the little boy that gives up his favorite teddy bear so that a stranger may be comforted.
• I'm the single mother who has been trying to teach her child to sleep in their own bed, who holds them tight long into the night, thanking God it wasn't her child that died.
• I'm the old man, angry and resentful that his military doesn't want him because of his age.
• I'm the teenaged girl that spends hours cutting ribbons for others to wear as a symbol of remembrance.
• I'm the young man who doesn't understand why his father was running up the stairs as the building fell, trying to save just one more person, instead of saving himself.
• I'm the old woman who will never see her grandchild again.
• I'm the little girl, playing with her doll, who can't understand when someone screams hateful things at her because of where her family is from.
• I'm the police officer, trying to keep idiotic reporters safe, when his wife is still among the missing.
• I'm the fire fighter that called in sick that day, only to discover that someone else died in his place.
• I'm the man who survived the falling building only to learn that his sister and baby niece were in the plane.
• I'm the secretary, angered by the seemingly callous response of those around her.
• I'm a spelunker, who is climbing down into the remains of a building, hoping to find someone still alive.
• I'm the dog handler, searching for bodies, that has to comfort my animal when only death remains.
• I'm the woman who stands in line for five hours in order to give blood, hoping to help strangers in need.
• I'm the man who gets up and goes to work every day, in spite of the tragedy, because he still has a family to feed.
• I'm the first passenger to get back on a plane, even though I'm terrified, because I know somebody has to be first.

Who am I?
I'm nobody special.
I'm just an American.

<author unknown>

Two Thousand One, Nine Eleven

Two thousand one, nine eleven
Five thousand plus arrive in heaven
As they pass through the gate,
Thousands more appear and wait

A bearded man with stovepipe hat
Steps forward saying,
"Lets sit, lets chat"

They settle down in seats of clouds
A man named Martin shouts out proud
"I have a dream!" and once he did
The Newcomer said, "Your dream still lives."

Groups of soldiers in blue and gray
Others in khaki, and green then say
"We're from Bull Run, Yorktown, the Maine"
The Newcomer said, "You died not in vain."

From a man on sticks one could hear
"The only thing we have to fear.
The Newcomer said, "We know the rest,
trust us sir, we've passed that test."

"Courage doesn't hide in caves
You can't bury freedom, in a grave,"
The Newcomers had heard this voice before
A distinct Yankees twang from Hyannisport shores

A silence fell within the mist
Somehow the Newcomer knew that this
Meant time had come for her to say
What was in the hearts of the five thousand plus that day
"Back on Earth, we wrote reports,
Watched our children play in sports
Worked our gardens, sang our songs
Went to church and clipped coupons

We smiled, we laughed, we cried, we fought
Unlike you, great we're not"

The tall man in the stovepipe hat
Stood and said, "don't talk like that!
Look at your country, look and see
You died for freedom, just like me"

Then, before them all appeared a scene
Of rubbled streets and twisted beams
Death, destruction, smoke and dust
And people working just 'cause they must

Hauling ash, lifting stones,
Knee deep in hell
But not alone

"Look! Blackman, Whiteman, Brownman, Yellowman
Side by side helping their fellow man!"
So said Martin, as he watched the scene
"Even from nightmares, can be born a dream."

Down below three firemen raised
The colors high into ashen haze
The soldiers above had seen it before
On Iwo Jima back in '44

The man on sticks studied everything closely
Then shared his perceptions on what he saw mostly" I see pain, I see tears,
I see sorrow - but I don't see fear."

"You left behind husbands and wives
Daughters and sons and so many lives
are suffering now because of this wrong
But look very closely. You're not really gone.

All of those people, even those who've never met you
All of their lives, they'll never forget you
Don't you see what has happened?
Don't you see what you've done?
You've brought them together, together as one.

With that the man in the stovepipe hat said
"Take my hand," and from there he led
five thousand plus heroes, Newcomers to heaven
On Two thousand one, nine eleven

WHAT IS AN AMERICAN ????

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American - any American. So, an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one.

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may, also, be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may, also, be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he or she could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, nor to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11 Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. One national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes "your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed." These in fact are the people who built America. Some of them were working in The Twin Towers the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries and cultures with first languages other than English including those countries of the 9/11 terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler tried. So did General Tojo, Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, doing so would be futile because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American Pass this around the World...