What's New
Outrage!
Subject: the September 11, 2001 terrorist destruction in N.Y.C. and Greater Washington, DC.
This is not a Traveller issue; although to judge from our historical reaction to the 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the present day reaction of my close family, I would say that all Travellers share my own outrage at this violation of the laws of God and man. No, this is a personal issue; I lost at least one relative, had a close friend endangered and, were it not for a single ridge line called the Palisades, I myself might have witnessed this tragedy over morning coffee. It's damned personal, yet it is not my outrage that I wish to write about.
Symbols:
Today (9/14/01) is the 187th anniversary of the composition of the Star-Spangled Banner, our national anthem. It has almost been forgotten now that the entire city of Washington was torched by our enemies at the time; yet the survival of one lone shot-torn American flag as a symbol of our young nation lives on and will survive for all time.
I remember shaking my head in disbelief just after this, the latest attack, both at the destruction itself but mostly at the televised description of the World Trade Center as a "symbol" of the United States. No! Emphatically no. No American symbol was destroyed last Tuesday morning. People were killed: Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, and perhaps as many other religions were represented in the death count as exist in the world. Yes, buildings were destroyed but it was the people of many faiths and races who coexisted in amity there within those buildings; the firemen, police and other emergency workers who rushed to danger within in the service of their fellow man; the rescuers who still labor at risk of life and limb in the hope that they may yet save lives: all those who died are now enfolded within our flag, still called Old Glory. They are the symbol of America and they are immortal.
You are at: What's New