Matthew wrote:
This is not political but since this is the 5 year remembrance for a day
the world we never forget I thought it appropriate to post a poem that
caught my attention
Sept. 11, 2001
Two Thousand One ~ Nine Eleven (2001-911)
Two thousand one, nine eleven
Three thousand plus arrive in heaven
As they pass through the gate,
Thousands more appear in wait
A bearded man with stovepipe hat
Steps forward saying, "Lets sit, lets chat"
They settle down in seats of clouds
A man named Martin shouts out proud
"I have a dream!" and once he did
The Newcomer said, "Your dream still lives."
Groups of soldiers in blue and gray
Others in khaki, and green then say
"We're from Bull Run, Yorktown, the Maine"
The Newcomer said, "You died not in vain."
From a man on sticks one could hear
"The only thing we have to fear.
The Newcomer said, "We know the rest,
Trust us sir, we've passed that test."
"Courage doesn't hide in caves
You can't bury freedom, in a grave,"
The Newcomers had heard this voice before
A distinct Yankees twang from Hyannis port shores
A silence fell within the mist
Somehow the Newcomer knew that this
Meant time had come for her to say
What was in the hearts of the five thousand plus that day
"Back on Earth, we wrote reports,
Watched our children play in sports
Worked our gardens, sang our songs
Went to church and clipped coupons
We smiled, we laughed,
we cried, we fought
Unlike you, great we're not"
The tall man in the stovepipe hat
Stood and said, "Don't talk like that!
Look at your country, look and see
You died for freedom, just like me"
Then, before them all appeared a scene
Of rubbled streets and twisted beams
Death, destruction, smoke and dust
And people working just 'cause they must
Hauling ash, lifting stones,
Knee deep in hell, but not alone
"Look! Blackman, Whiteman, Brownman, Yellowman
Side by side helping their fellow man!"
So said Martin, as he watched the scene
"Even from nightmares, can be born a dream."
Down below three firemen raised
The colors high into ashen haze
The soldiers above had seen it before
On Iwo Jima back in '45
The man on sticks studied everything closely
Then shared his perceptions on what he saw mostly
"I see pain, I see tears,
I see sorrow -- but I don't see fear."
"You left behind husbands and wives
Daughters and sons and so many lives
Are suffering now because of this wrong
But look very closely. You're not really gone.
All of those people, even those who've never met you
All of their lives, they'll never forget you
Don't you see what has happened?
Don't you see what you've done?
You've brought them together, together as one.
With that the man in the stovepipe hat said
"Take my hand," and from there he led
Three thousand plus heroes, Newcomers to heaven
On this day, two thousand one, nine eleven
Author UNKNOWN (What a shame!)
5 years ago at the time of the first plane hit I was watching the news
already ready to start my day. Everyone thought it was just an airliner
accident. I prayed for the people in the tower. A dear friend called me
to tell me what happened he could not reach anyone else but his family just
me. He was right across from the towers literally right below the south
tower near the side where the second plane hit. I kept telling him to get
out of there get somewhere safe. When the second plane hit I remember
screaming NO at the TV scaring the hell out of the cats and my family. I
yelled him run God run now get the hell out of there. We were both in tears
on the phone. He was telling me to tell his family that he loved them and
we both thought he was going to die right there. I remember the screams in
the backgrounds, the shouts and his tears my tears than silence. I remember
holding on tight to my family praying to all that was good please let them
be ok. I tried calling back but only got his voice mail I promised him his
family would know that they were in his thoughts.
I made so many phone calls that morning trying to find my family and
friends. I had a family member in a building near the towers we could not
find her and no one knew were she was. We were all glued to the TV looking
for answers when I saw the report on the pentagon attacks. I fell to my
knees saying no no n o for a cousin works in the building. We could not
find her for 14 hours. I called out for answers the only answer I had was
silence. No one could tell us anything no one had answers. The rest of
the day was glued to the TV sitting in silence stunned, violated, nauseated,
feeling the hatred, asking for forgiveness for the hatred.
When the announcement of flight 93 came out I just sat there emotional
stunned.
I watched them pull some fire fighters out of the rubble and the first call
he did was to his mother to say "I am ok,I am sorry that I scared you, I
love you". I remembering saying thank you in a silent prayer
I watched the people; looking for my cousin, that had evacuated the
pentagon sitting in the field where a makeshift trama area had been made.
When the repost came in that there was still people trapped inside and
everyone even the injured ones stood up and went running back to help.
I thought heroes all of them and prayed for them and their families when the
towers fell. I thought the world had ended
That evening I received the calls I had been praying for my friend had
made it out of the area he had to walk home many miles, My cousins was
stuck on the freeway for hours in the evacuation. We did not find our other
family member from the towers for 2 weeks. She is the type that disappears
for weeks at a time when she feels like it ( b@tch ).
I am sorry if this offends anyone but after 5 years I had to get this off
my chest. Today in remembrance all I could do is shed tears at the 4
moments of silence. Wear a american flag pin to show support. Drive with
my headlights on all day. To give a smile to the person as I held the door
for them. To make sure I said thank you and you are welcome with a smile on
my face.
To makes sure heroes are remember somehow some way a small way to say thank
you. You are not forgotten
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11
I'm certainly not offended, Matthew. 9/11 happened to us all. It is a
day we SHOULD remember, as we remember the people we lost that day,
especially those who took down the plane on Flight 93 in Pennsylvania
so that that plane could not be used as a weapon against anyone else
on the ground.
My own 9/11 experience was considerably less emotionally wrenching
than yours, as I didn't lose anyone I loved that day, or even come
close to losing them. My family is very West Coast based, and my
brother, who's the only person living on the East Coast is down in
Florida, a long way from NY or Washington. I don't generally watch the
news on TV in the morning as even on completely normal days, I don't
want to let that much "world" into my kitchen as the day begins. I'm
just not ready for a barrage of news at that time of day. I do listen
to the local classical music station on the radio, and I was doing so
as I puttered around in my kitchen making breakfast at about 8:15 A.M.
Pacific Time. There was music playing as I turned on the radio, and
while I recognized it was a somber piece--can't remember what it was,
now--I didn't think anything of it until I heard the announcer's voice
saying "The World Trade Center is Gone." ON the east coast, the
second tower had collapsed.
THAT made me look up and I thought something really stupid like "Gone?
Where did it GO??" I think I switched to a news station at that
point, and like everyone here, I was horrified by the news. At work, we
all wore black ribbons, kind of like the pink breast cancer ribbon, but
black, pinned to our clothes. I remember that day feeling very eerie
and ominous. Everyone was very very quiet. If I looked out the window,
I didn't see anything that wasn't completely normal, and yet I knew
nothing would be the same, again. I live near two airports, and I'm so
used to the sound of airplanes flying over that those two days when all
domestic flights were grounded were horribly quiet. That more than
anything else underlined what had happened. On Thursday the 13th,
when the planes began to fly again, the first one flying over head
sounded so loud, it might have been coming in for a landing on the
neighbor's roof. But I was so relieved to hear it! That fall, as news
of the anthrax attacks came, everything seemed very precarious, and
anything out of the ordinary seemed to have a sinister meaning.
ON the second anniversary of 9/11, I was in Italy on a painting trip,
and I heard some of my traveling companions talking about THEIR
experiences on 9/11. The group leader's husband (he's a retired naval
officer) was at work at the Pentagon, although luckily, he was at the
other side of the building when t he plane hit. He HEARD it, but didn't
realize what it was, thinking that somebody had just dropped something
really heavy, like a safe.. About twenty minutes later, people were
running by his office telling everyone to evacuate the building.
Another woman on that trip said her husband, very luckily was away from
his office when that plane hit, as his office was on the floor right
above. If he'd been in it, he'd have been killed. His office of course
was totally destroyed.
Melissa