Tears.

Nine years ago my wife and I stood in front of our TV watching images of the horror unfolding in New York, our eyes red and sore from hours of crying. At one point some new piece of news flashed on the screen and my wife sobbed, "I just can't cry any more." I agreed. There just couldn't be any more tears left in our bodies.

But there were more tears. We have cried since - cried at the loss of young Americans lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.... and Ft. Hood, Texas. These were not bad people, finally caught perpetrating some evil deed. They were good people who had sacrificed a career, a peaceful civilian life, to serve their country.

We have cried as we tried to understand why anyone would want to kill them. We have cried as we tried to understand why people would want to destroy our beautiful America, this land we love so much.

We have tried to understand our enemy, and tried to understand why we cannot seem to defeat them.

We cry as we hear that some Americans, persons blessed with citizenship in this extraordinary nation, have joined al qaeda and their fight against America. One of those citizens born right here in my city while his father attended the very university later attended by members of my family.

Today we cry again as we hear anew of the suffering of so many. We cry as we realize that people with radical ideologies hold reins of power in our nation; people who seem to demonstrate that they do not share our devotion to this nation; people who seem to resent America's exceptionalism and want to bring her down.

Yes, there have been more tears. And, nothing gives us cause to believe the sadness will soon end.