Over the last 5 years, I have been a bit removed from the effects of the increased security measures that have been implemented throughout the United States. The year after 9/11, I and the children moved to Minnesota to live with my parents while Dale was in Korea. When we moved to Minnesota, Abby wanted to know two things. 1. Do all Grandmas and Grandpas live at the end of dirt roads? 2. Why are all the people who eat at Culvers fat? So, I explained to her the fundamental principles of life in the Midwest. We then moved to Hawaii and were together as a family again. Hawaii may be a US state, but it is very different then the rest of the US and we soon learned why Hawaiians say “lucky you live Hawaii”. From there, we were off to Australia which is removed from the rest of the world by miles and miles. If we didn’t speak and pretended we were Aussies, the world looked at us fondly. At the end of Dale’s Australia assignment, we flew back to the US and the security situation becomes evident quite quickly. Watching Zeke, who is 3, get patted down because we were traveling on one way tickets was one part amusing and another part unnerving. We traveled into DC to watch the 4th of July fireworks and had to go through security checkpoints to sit on a blanket on the mall. What took me most by surprise, however, was the elaborate security procedures at the kids school. These procedures were put into place to counter the violent events that have occurred at campuses throughout the US. All the cars must line up and proceed through a school drop off zone where the teachers escort the children from the cars. When it is time for school to start, the children are brought into the building and the doors are locked. Those inside can get out quickly, but anyone attempting to enter must be buzzed in. In the afternoon, the children are brought outside and loaded into there cars at a loading zone area. You are issued a name sign which you must display. I was all impressed with myself when I actually laminated or as Abby termed it, lamented, my name sign. I just knew that if I didn’t laminate it, it would get spilled on, ripped, dropped in a mud puddle or thrown away by Josiah (who this morning threw away his school water bottle when he threw out the rubbish in his lunch box). My pride in my laminated sign only lasted a day, because I saw another mother who not only laminated her sign, but she also cut it down to size, clipped it to a child’s clothes hanger and hung it from her rear view mirror. I just can’t compete with the Martha’s of the world. I don’t know why I even try. If anyone else is picking up your children, they must be on an authorized pickup list and their ID will be checked. The driving pattern for all of this changes depending on if it’s drop off or pickup, good weather day or bad weather day. Americans love drive thrus, but I never thought I’d find a drive thru to pick up my children. I do find parts of this amusing, but the necessity for it makes me sad. Today is September 11th and I feel a tremendous grief once again for the family and friends who lost those they loved six years ago. We were living in New York during the September 11th attacks, approximately 1 1/2 hours north of NYC. I can still remember clearly the overwhelming fear I felt watching the towers collapse: fear for my husband, fear for my children, fear for myself, and fear for my country. I also recall the shock I felt when I realized that there were people in the world who hated me simply because I was an American. So, today I am reminded and I pray that “the God of peace will be with you”.