9-11: THEY KNOCKED US DOWN. WE'RE GOING BACK UP

By Juan Montoya
I was in southwestern Minnesota getting ready for work the morning of 911 when I saw the burning South Tower and turned to my better half and said: "Either we choose to be in continual war from now on, or we reassess our foreign policy toward the Middle East. Otherwise, this isn't going to stop."
Ten years later as we remember the anniversary of the attacks, it is apparent that we have chosen war as our future.
Our Middle East policy toward the Muslim world continues and our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan have cost us blood and treasure and thousands of lives of innocent people in those countries. We have hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden and decapitated the Al Quaida leadership. And what has it gotten us? Do you feel any safer? It seems that for every muslim we kill, another two or three rise to take their place. We are spening billions to lay waste to entire countries.
We still prop up monarchies that suppress their people for oil, regimes that deprive women of simple human rights, and "our friends" still continue to finance the movements of radicals against us. That's what we chose and now we have to live with it until we regain our national collective sense. Our policies continue to nurture hatred against us among their young generations.
However, it can't be said that this nation has not shown the resolve necessary to confront a determined enemy.
The USS New York was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center.
It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.
Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, La., to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there.
"It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."
Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up.
"It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."
The ship's motto? "Never Forget."
This 911 the national media is taking that message to heart.