leasheryn's Blog

Drastic and terrible  events have unfolded in America.  Surely we all feel as though we have been devastated, as if the unspeakable has happened.  To have lost so much and so many lives in one day is a loss that we will long remember.   

I, like many, watched with awe as a hijacked plane flew directly into the World Trade Center in New York City.  Moments later another hijacked plane attacked the second of the twin towers.  And again, in moments, In Washington, yet another hijacked plane struck the Pentagon.  Surely, surely we are lost in this total, unexpected, devastation.

Yet, as I watched the second of the twin towers collapse, sinking to the ground, followed by the first one that was hit, the skyline of New York appeared complete except for the addition of a billowing cloud of ugly smoke that hid the fact that the towers were gone. 

Yet, yet...

Standing firmly, bold and straight in New York Harbor (just as she always has for generations of immigrants who believed in our country enough to leave their homes in search of a new and better life), despite the devastation, is our defiant Lady Liberty with her torch upraised to the sky.  Our country's symbol remains to encourage.    

"Oh say can you see             

By the dawn's early light

What so proudly we hail'd

In the twilight's last gleaming"

Think of these immortal words written so long ago by Francis Scott Key, also under fire and thinking the worst had come.  It was the end of a horrible time, and he could see a great symbol of our country still boldly waving in the wind.  Our flag was still there!

Our Lady Liberty is still there!

Firm and bold and strong! There is nothing that will stop us or hold us back.

Sarasota Herald Tribune Sunday September 16, 2001

These were my views seven years ago shortly after 9/11.  I share them with you in memory of the fallen.