“the sick people who plotted this tragedy”
Their religion promised a very special heaven for martyrs.
“I was an atheist at the time”
There you go again.
“but I carried thoughts of deepest empathy for the victims and their families”
That makes a little sense.
“which hopefully God was able to use somehow.”
That does not make any sense.
“be grateful simply to be alive.”
Now there’s a good secular thought.
“My guess is that, for most of us, the way we acted the day after the attacks is closer to the way we should act all the time.”
Just wishful thinking.  The day after was just like the day before.

I will never forget.  It was only a few minutes ago.  I was at the Pentagon.  I saw the plane hit.  I was there all day afterwards.  My girlfriend was in New York at the Twin Towers. I couldn’t reach her.

Driving away from the Pentagon later, exhausted, reeling, stunned and angry, I recall how people drove their cars in such a strange way.  EVERYONE was driving as if their life depended upon being courteous.  People were slow, cautious and gracious.  So much so, that I had never, ever seen driving like that before in my entire life.  (Or since.)

I recall the empty sky.  Birds came out of no where, and for the next couple of weeks I saw more birds in the sky than I had ever seen.  It was if they were celebrating the lack of competition.  It was so pronounced and acute and strange.  Their songs only muted by the thunder of fighter jets flying CAP missions overhead.

Yeah, people were much nicer afterwards.  For a little while.  But I admit that what sticks with me was watching that plane fly over my head. Low.  And the sound of my own voice screaming NO!  What sticks in my head was learning about my towers fall - ones I had seen built when I was a kid.

What sticks in my head is the security agent at the Pentagon falling to her knees and wailing as I held her up when she learned that the towers fell.  She had moved to DC from New Jersey only 2 weeks before, but her husband still worked at the World Trade center.  She knew he was gone.

What sticks in my head is the feeling of frustration when we were all ordered back away from the Pentagon because another plane was inbound.  While those on board that plane fought with the terrorists, we stood with the firemen and police and had to watch and smell the Pentagon burn, with people still inside.  We waited for the next plane to hit.  Some of us (military) went to the top of the hill nearby and actually picked up large stones and discussed trying to get them into the engine intakes if possible.  We knew it was impossible.  We prayed for the people on that last plane.  It was a blessing. We got to pray for them while they were still in the air.  Alive.

I will never be able to look at the pictures of those towers come down.  I will never watch any shows about it.  It is still happening and I still don’t believe it.

No.  It is not the 10th anniversary for me.  It was only a minute ago. The sounds still ring in my ears.  And we have learned nothing. God help us. Please.

I had a hard time getting my brain around the fact that it was real: it looked like some kind of disaster movie. The Washington Post ran mini-biographies of many (all?) of the victims over the next week, and I spent a lot of time just sitting down and reading those, just to let the fact that these were real individual persons, with real lives, who had been killed.

@Mike, I think that Jennifer is saying is that, even though she didn’t believe in prayer, she hopes that God was able to use her thoughts as if they were prayers.

“she hopes that God was able to use her thoughts as if they were prayers.”
So silly.  Prayers are useless.  There was a letter to the editor in our newspaper today that recommended praying against the arrival of a hurricane that might bring us rain.  After all, Perry prayed for rain last April and it didn’t work.  So if we pray that a hurricane won’t come, maybe it will.  So silly.
“But we would do well to keep our memories of that time alive longer than just one day.”
As if anyone who flies a commercial airline is not all too aware that the inconvenience that they are faced with is a result of what happened 10 years ago.  Body search an 80-year-old grandmother who made a last minute decision to fly 150 miles one-way?  Terrorist threat!  Threaten a protesting daughter with jail?  Interfering with the law!  A 7 ounce can of shaving gel?  Hand it over!  And don’t try to show me that it really is just shaving gel!
“What transpired that morning a decade ago shocked most of us into better behavior, at least for a while.”
Yes.  Now ask how many die or are injured in automobile crashes every year?  Why do many of us have such poor behavior on the road?  Because almost every driver is “better than average”!  Just ask them!  Too many times the response is not in proper proportion to the threat.
“how much there is to be thankful for in the simple moments of ordinary life” ... “be grateful simply to be alive.”
Now there are two good secular thoughts.  Let’s follow them with “this life is our one chance to make a difference - let’s do the best we can to make a difference.”

@Mike McCants: Is enjoying life only a secular endeavor?  They can be secular thoughts if you like, but can’t those things be a part of the life of a person who believes in God?  Our time on earth is time to help each other and certainly we can be grateful for life.

Mike, I think it’s very sad that a heartfelt reflection on a tragic event elicits not just one, but two rabid and incoherent posts from you here.  Please find something else to do with your precious time (time that you should understand to be all the more precious because of the content of this post) than follow Jennifer around on her blog with responses no one can read because they’re so poorly written.  Your secular thoughts are good, and you obviously feel superior to theists, so please pursue your “superior” secular thoughts into action—and do it elsewhere. Your silence in response to my post, and the others that follow, would speak volumes about the sincerity of your last statement.  I’ll be praying for you.

“Please find something else to do with your precious time”
Oh I’m so touched that you care about my “precious time”.  In other words, you do not want to read an opinion that seems to contradict your opinions.
“please pursue your “superior” secular thoughts into action”
My volunteer time is about 800 hours per year - mostly during income tax season.
“Your silence in response to my post, and the others that follow, would speak volumes”
Hilarious.

Dear Used, Your pain is so wrenching.  I don’t want to be intrusive and I’m sure you’ve been given more counseling than you might want but I feel compelled to make a suggestion.  You might want to check out www.freedomscalling.org.  I will leave it at that and will add you specifically to my prayers of the victims and their families.  May God shine His face upon you.

Mike, please do something with your family, or take a walk, or go see a movie, or whatever you want.  But this post on this day is not a good place to mock people you disagree with.  Tomorrow we can kvetch about the TSA or argue about religion as much as you like.  Today you should remember that the world does not revolve around you.

Dear LAJ:

You know, after some talk about all this yesterday and now reading your reply, I think that I am going to take your advice and check out that website.  It is strange because I definitely have PTSD - from this and other things - but because EVERYBODY experienced 9/11 in some way, I have always felt weird about my own pain.  Who cares, ya know?  A lot of people have pain.  That’s been my attitude. 

We were blessed to have the most awesome homily EVER in our parish yesterday.  Very inspiring.

Thank you LAJ - for caring.  I really appreciate it!  God bless you!

Dear Used,
You are very welcome. I care - a lot. Just ask my husband :) I sincerely hope the technique that Freedom’s Calling uses will be helpful to you.  Please let me know how you are doing.  I would really like to know.  I wish I could give you my email address but I don’t think that would be a good idea on an open blog.  We do get “trolls” around here ;)  God Bless!
LAJ

Dear Used,
Ooops I read Jennifer’s blog so you can send me a combox message here if you care to do so. 
LAJ

Mike McCants, Even when Jen writes a lovely column about 9/11, you still come along and bash it, have you nothing better than stick your ignorant Atheist nose into a Catholic Blog. Whar you reading the Atheist New York Times, or the Atheist Money losing rag Newsweek. Why don’t you go and read the life of Lenin an Atheist hero who murdered millions of Catholics and fellow Christians. Of course are you one of those Atheists who are suffering depression and are physically sick with the thought of the Cross on ground zero. Is there no Atheists sites for you to visit

The Con barfs:  “have you nothing better than stick your ignorant Atheist nose into a Catholic Blog.”  Hilarious.  If you really want to ask a question, you could use that ? character.  But yes, I am retired and volunteer only a few hours per week during non-income tax season.  So I am free to bring a little enlightenment to this corner of the universe.
“Of course are you one of those Atheists who are suffering depression and are physically sick with the thought of the Cross on ground zero.”  Hilariously irrelevant.  I am mainly amused and only somewhat depressed by your silly statements.  You do not seem to be typical fortunately.
“Is there no Atheists sites for you to visit”
I follow many secular blogs.  Here are PZ’s comments about 9/11:  “That’s really how I feel: we have been marching backwards since 9/11, throwing away our civil liberties, lashing out at the world with violence, as if that will solve anything.”  “There’s nothing to honor today. Americans should see this as a day of shame, not because we were attacked, but for how we responded afterwards — we left courage behind and became a nation of bullies and cowards.”  I also noted a claim that we have spent $3.3 trillion dollars in the last 10 years that could be considered a response to 9/11.  Was that money well spent?  I think not.

Mike McCants In 2008 your Hero Myers wrote that he got a consecrated Host and stuck a nail in it and threw it in the trash, no doubt your hero would not go to Saudi Arabia and desecrate a copy of the Koran would he?
Did not another Atheist hero Christopher Hitchens support the War in Iraq, did he not?
Did not another Atheist Lenin feel himself so superior to Catholics and other Christians that he murdered them , closed down their churches and in their place opened Museums Of Atheism. Maybe you should go to Moscow and see the stuffed remains of the heroic Atheist Lenin, I can gaurentee you from what I have been told that the que to see that stuffed Tyrant is very small these days.

We if you are” depressed by my comments “you know what you can do, don’t you, and if you are depressed by my “silly Comments” you know what you can do , you will not be missed from this site.

The fact that our resident Atheist troll would quote Paul Krugman’s vile column from 9/11 tells me all I need to know about him.

Remember - you don’t have to attend every argument you are invited to.

“no doubt your hero would not go to Saudi Arabia and desecrate a copy of the Koran would he?”
So you admit that there is a lot of difference between the freedom of the United States and the theocracy of Saudi Arabia.  What’s your point?
“you will not be missed from this site”
Yes, it seems likely that I will continue to post on this site.
“quote Paul Krugman’s vile column from 9/11”
Actually it was PZ stating similar thoughts.
“Remember - you don’t have to attend every argument you are invited to.”
Remember - you don’t have to read everything that I have posted.
You could simply skip my posts and avoid reading something that contradicts your religious worldview.