This past weekend September 11 came home to us again. Watching events on TV and attending the ground breaking at Tobay Beach, sometimes something would just hit us and we felt a sob or a tear spilling out. We have not forgotten the events. We still want to hear more of what happened. Each person we hear speak adds to our knowledge as we view what happened.

We listened to Bill Moyers talk about the 9/11 Commission Report and were told of the lapses that kept us from acting against the event. We were so close, had we been more focused.

In spite of the tragedy of September 11, there is a ripple effect Osama Bin Laden would never have dreamed of; friends and families, in the name of those lost, have done good deeds that will continue to radiate throughout the world in direct opposition to the crime the attackers perpetrated.

At Tobay Beach we learned that Daniel and Gayle Cain of Massapequa are remembering the memory of George C. Cain of Ladder 7. They held a golf outing at the Town of Oyster Bay Golf Course to benefit High Hopes Ranch for autistic children. "George loved children," they said, and this is their tribute to his love for them.

Barbara and Robert Jackman of Mill Neck have remembered their daughter, Brooke Alexandra Jackman, an Oyster Bay High School graduate, by creating Brooke's Books, a foundation that provides backpacks and books to children in shelters in New York City. They have created reading library corners in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Schools and a reading garden outside the Roosevelt School.

There are memorial trees planted at the Green Vale School. In Westbury, a golf tournament raised $300,000 for scholarships for a Westbury victim's family. In Oyster Bay there is a beautiful memorial along the Western Waterfront. It is a wonderful place for reflection.

While the events of September 11 are unspeakable, the reaction of Americans has been worth telling people about. There have been several books about the damage done by 9/11; we'd like to see a book about the positive things that have been done in response to it. That includes Tuesdays Children, the organization that works with the children who lost relatives that day. None of what is happening wipes the slate clean, it just shows that people have choices in how to respond to bad things that happen. There is hope in the world.

- DFK