Saturday, September 11, 2010

On This Date

On this date in 2001 the towers fell and we watched.  We were pierced through with the magnitude of the event.  Tears streamed down.  How can this happen, we asked.  Nobody had an answer, except Usama.  He said it was our fault.  He lied.

It was in no way our fault that extremists listened to the voices of hate urging them on to do such damage in our country; striking at our our values and our very way of life.  It is not our fault and I refuse to accept that this great land was or is in any way to blame for the extreme hatred that still spews.  We open our doors to legal immigrants and offer help to the tired, the poor...the wretched refuse of those teeming shores.  All others need to go to the back of the  line and wait their turn. 

I recall with pride the sights on television in those days in the aftermath of September 11.  I saw people helping each other out of harms way.  Newsmen reporting on the events with tears in their eyes.  The funeral of a beloved priest who lost his life and all the other funerals that ended with the piper playing taps for a fallen hero - while a city came together to recover the lost and clear the rubble.

One image stands out in my mind from those days; a man standing beside the road with a cardboard sign in his hands, steadfastly holding it up for the passing cars to see.  The sign said simply, Be Brave.  Be Strong.

A message worth remembering.

Be brave. 

Be strong.

1 comment:

RANGER said...

Be brave, be strong. What a wonderful message. I had not heard of this man and his sign.

The only sign I remember in the aftermath was a man who held up a sign that said: Will Work For Food. Only he misspelled the first word. It looked like: Mill Work For Food. Took us a while to figure it out.