Miss Becky's Blog

A Letter from Miss Becky on September 11, 2001

Dear Special Friends,

Today (September 11, 2001) has been a very sad and tragic day for America and some are saying this is war. This morning some terrorist hijacked four commercial airplanes flying from the east coast to California and crashed them into the two towers of the of the World Trade Center in New York City and those buildings later fell to the ground (they were 110 floors high) killing and injuring hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people. Then just a few minutes later a plane crashed into the Pentagon, the top Military Building of our National Defense, in Washington D.C. and then a fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania (near Washington D.C.) and no one knows where that plane was intending to go. There will be many, many killed by this -- it's too early to know the number yet.

This has paralyzed our nation today. All United States airplanes were grounded for at least 24 hours and all international planes flying to the US returned to other bases if possible. (Our daughter's friend flying to Los Angeles from Germany was in the air and they had to return to Europe.) Our son K.C. was on a plane here in Salt Lake City, but they could not take off, he was on his way to Little Rock, Arkansas for his work. He is scheduled to leave tomorrow afternoon if there are no other problems. Many national parks and places of entertainment, concerts, and special TV programs have been closed, cancelled or postponed.

We have been to New York City a few times. Our daughter Amy lived and worked there for a year and a half and our son Brady lives there now. He is serving a mission for our church. We were not worried about him, as he lives about 8 kms from where the buildings were hit. But it was good that he called us to let us know for sure that he was OK. We are very grateful. All of our children have called us today to make sure that Brady is OK, as well as both my sisters, my parents, a niece and several other friends.

This attack on our fellow citizens and our freedom is very serious. It has been said today that this is worst attack on our country since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. The difference is that Pearl Harbor was an attack of military against military. Today, it was innocent people attacked by an unknown enemy. Our President will be talking to the nation tonight on television. I know the enemy wants us to be fearful and afraid, but I want you to know that my belief in God gives me confidence. I'm praying that God will comfort the families of the many victims of this action; that God will give wisdom and guidance to our authorities and armed forces as they respond to this situation and that individually God will bless each of us with a "peace of mind" and continued hope and desire to work for PEACE and LOVE throughout the whole world.

Please know that Ken and I love each of you as a brother or sister, son or daughter, as special eternal friends and we hope for the day when all the people of the world will have the opportunity to get to know and love each other as we have and learn that we are truly BROTHERS and SISTERS in the human family, that we are much more alike than different. I pray for that day to come.

Love to all of you,
Miss Becky