It’s Monday so I’m sure you were expecting a different kind of post, but it’s also September 11th and for me that will forever be a day of remembrance and mourning.

As I got off the train this morning and saw the date on the platform monitor, it occurred to me that this day was much like that day for me and so many others. We got up. We dressed. We went to work. For others, they might have been getting on a plane to go home or to a business meeting or to take a vacation. Everyday things until the unthinkable happened.

I remember standing in my office, wondering how a plane could have hit the first tower. I remember seeing the second plane flying through the canyons created by New York City skyscrapers before it hit the second tower in something that looked out of a Hollywood movie. Only it was no movie. It was painful reality.

Each minute of that day is indelibly etched on my mind as are the painful memories of the days and months that followed. The smiling faces of friends, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, and children staring out from posters that hopeful family members had stuck onto lamp posts and bus stops. Trying to explain to my daughter what had happened and why it was that some people could hate others so much just for being American.

American. I am Cuban by birth but American by choice. I bleed the red, white and blue of America. In the days and months that followed, I was, like so many others, proud of how Americans of all races, ethnicities, and religions came together to confront the tragedy that had occurred.

United we stood and mourned, but also rebuilt. It is time to once again come together and remember that no matter what our political views, races, ethnicities or religions we are all one thing: American.

God bless those lost on that day and since then. The many first responders who gave all on September 11th and after, working the pile. God bless our military men, women, and families for the sacrifices they make to keep us safe. God bless our police and firefighters for the difficult work that they do. Most of all, God Bless America and keep her safe.