Today is Sept. 11, 2010. An unremarkable day in some ways. In others, a quite remarkable one.

Nine years ago, our nation and the our ideals came under attack as the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon were bombed. Four commercial airliners were hijacked and crashed, into the twin towers of World Trade Center; the Pentagon; and a field in Pennsylvania.

In that one day, 2,996 people lost their lives, including the 19 hijackers. Innocent Americans working in the Twin Towers, first-responders on the scene to help, airline passengers on the way home … and victims of the worst terrorist attack we’ve ever known.

And in the nine years since, our nation has been at war. We’ve fought a global war on terror, and a war with our own fears, struggling to come to grips with everyday life and the balance of protecting our freedoms while maintaining our security.

We’ve fought to extend the very freedoms we protect to the men and women who use those freedoms of speech to berate and to hate us, because we recognize that freedom cannot be compromised.

We have fought to maintain our free market economy, the very essence of capitalism which inflamed the jihadists and the terrorists.

And we have fought to preserve the memory of those who died that day and to honor their sacrifice by continuing to live as proud Americans.

So today, as you go about your everyday lives, take a moment to remember that we are proud Americans.

Fly your flag today, in honor of those who gave their lives and in honor of those who continue to protect our way of life today.

And let us remember the lesson of 9/11.