I’m sitting at Washington D.C. Reagan International Airport. There aren’t many people traveling this morning, or at least that’s the way it seems.

I can see the planes flying overhead, taking off and landing. All I can do is think back to this day on September 11, 2001. I was living in California and my mother called me by phone to wake me up after she watched the first plane hit the first tower on the news.

That moment is ingrained in my memory. I sat on the phone with her watching as the second plane hit the second tower. It changed our nation was changed forever. In fact, the world fundamentally changed that very day. I was changed.

Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day – ripped abruptly from their families lives.

I remember feeling stunned as I watched the events unfold that morning. After the planes struck the World Trade Center, I sat in horror as I watched the the fierce blaze that followed and the innocent people jumping to their deaths rather than being consumed by the flames.

I remember the first responders, brave New York firefighters, and the people of New York – covered in dust – running for their lives and searching for loved ones. Then another plane hit the Pentagon and then another United Flight 93 was forced to crash in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after the brave Americans on board rushed the four al-Qaeda terrorists and stopped them from using the plane to kill more innocent civilians on the ground. On that flight

There really isn’t a day that goes by as I pass the Pentagon on my way to work or return home where I don’t think about what happened. It was the reason I became a journalist and traveled to the war zones to cover the war and terrorism. The attack also changed my family forever when my husband was blinded in Afghanistan while fighting terrorists.

I’ll be boarding shortly on my Delta flight to attend CPAC Minnesota:”Some People Did Something.” The event was named after the controversy that swirled over Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on-camera statements in an interview she gave in April at the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

I’m attending the CPAC event because I believe it is imperative that we don’t forget our history. That we not only remember but that we stand up against those who want to distort it or forget it. I will be on stage Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, among other notable conservatives.

More importantly, my friend, former Wall Street Journal and award winning journalist Asra Nomani will be there. Nomani, along with Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, both highly acclaimed Muslim reformists, are willing to answer any questions from the audience regarding Islam. They won’t shy away from discussing topics affiliated with Islam or extremism.

This is important because as Americans we need to be open and honest with one another. More importantly we need to communicate. Our congressional representatives, like Omar, are voted into office to represent their constituents, not themselves.

Omar, one of two Muslim women in Congress, said during the interview that “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something.” She did not mention al-Qaeda, Islamic extremism or the horrific suicide hijackings that killed 3,000 people.

Omar did not mention the litany of changes that took place in our nation, the long drawn out wars fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. The American soldiers who paid with their lives, were wounded or who live with the internal scares of war.

She didn’t bother to mention the fact that America is still in an ongoing battle with Islamist extremists.

Yes, Rep. Omar, “some people did something.” What these Islamists terrorists did changed the world. They and they alone are to blame.

Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, espouse a deeply fundamentally flawed extremist Islamist ideology. They targeted innocent civilians on September 11, 2001 because they want to destroy the western way of life.

The despicable actions of Sept. 11, fundamentally changed the way we live and the precautions we still have to take as a nation to protect ourselves and to preserve our way of life.

Omar should spend more time building bridges not targeting Israel and U.S. national policies, like immigration.

She is in a unique position to stand up to Muslim extremists around the world and she should be willing to answer almost all questions regarding her faith.

But that isn’t something she has been willing to do, which leaves me wondering why she won’t?