On that fateful morning, I had received a call from my husband who works at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), telling me to turn on the television, and like everyone else, I was unable to believe what I saw -- no matter how many times they replayed it. Then it hit me! What about our daughter and her fiancŽ?

Later that day, we did manage to get in touch with her. For the first time since she had arrived on this earth, I was unable to give her much solace. She was frightened and all the words I offered, sounded hollow even to me. She told me she didn't mind telling anyone who would listen, she was terrified. Not so much for herself, but for her fiancŽ and all of her fellow sailors. It was heartrending. She ended our conversation by expressing her concern for all of us here in America.

Wednesday afternoon when the rain subsided somewhat, my husband went out front and put up our flag. A small gesture, but one that made him feel less helpless. Somehow we felt that it stood as a tribute, not only to the people who had perished, but their families as well.

This brings me to the point of this column. When we finally couldn't stand one more moment of television we took a drive. I thought that since we live on the Space Coast which gives everyone who works at KSC a very good living and since we have so many military and retired military among us, the neighborhoods would be ablaze with flags. NOT SO! In our own subdivision there were three flags and as of this writing there isn't one more.

On Sunday we drove to Cocoa Beach. Surely there would be flags flying everywhere we thought. NOT SO! Oh yes, I know flags are hard to come by, but how much effort would it take to put anything on your home with our colors displayed? I did see one home where the family had actually put three pieces of paper on their glass-fronted door. On the top paper they had colored an American flag. The second piece of paper from the top held the message GOD BLESS AMERICA while the third and bottom one was another colored flag. God bless you, whoever you are.

This has led my husband and I to come to the conclusion: For some people, if it takes more than a few moments of effort, it isn't worth doing. There shouldn't be one home or business in Brevard County which isn't displaying our colors.

Do you know what it would mean to families like us, who cannot even reach out to hug our children, to at least see our fellow Brevardians have gone out of their way to put some sort of red, white and blue on their homes as a tribute to the tens of thousands of young men and women in the military? Men and women who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for you and yours. It's time to get off the couch and show you care!