Seven years ago I was in Rayong, Thailand teaching English.  I was talking to my Mom on the phone getting caught up with the happenings in Seattle as well as in Thailand….then my Mom casually tells me that a plane has just hit a building in New York.  Surprised to hear this news…I asked her to tell me more details?  My wonderful Mother wasn’t really paying attention to the news.  I shouted across the dining room that I was using the phone in and asked my British friend to turn on the news…sure enough…a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York City.  My mother had given the impression that it was small commuter that had flown off course and hit just some building?  My mother is not a woman of details…well during this conversation she wasn’t.  As I half listened to my mother on the phone and half listen to the news on the TV a second plane flew into the other tower of the World Trade Center.  The room went silent, and everyone in the room started to gather around the TV.  At this point I told my mom “I Love you…I gotta go”.  We gathered around the TV, people from all over the world, all of us could not believe what had just happened.  and it wasn’t over.  A few minutes later the first tower fell, then the second tower.  I remember the TV saying “America has been attacked” and “Major attack on the US”.  All the American travelers were advised not to travel to Southern Thailand,  the US embassy issued a warning that it was unsafe for Americans to travel, we were advised to stay where we were until “They” could figure out what to do?  The next couple of hours were very strange around the school..very quiet.  A few days later…I was teaching English in a 5th grade classroom at a public school in Rayong, Thailand.  It was a typical day, me in front of 45 thai students, me not really knowing how to speak Thai, and them not really know how to speak English.  Normal day…then from the back of the classroom the kids started chanting, yelling, cheering, laughing, “Bin Laden, Bin Laden, Bin Laden!”   I didn’t know what to do?  What was I supposed to do?  I don’t know how these Thai kids feel about the United States?  Are these Kids doing anything wrong?  I was nervous, nervous about all the other 5th graders in the world that were cheering and chanting, excited to see America attacked?  All I could do was give them a positive impression of an individual American?      Our world has not been the same since.  Seven years ago today…the World went to war.  Seven years the United States has been fighting the “War on Terror”…and why are we in Iraq?  Happy Patriot Day!

I gotta get back on my bike….keep on pedaling!