I watched the movie about Flight 93 (the plane where the passengers fought back and crashed in Pennsylvania) the other night. Wept through most of it. I was reminded of how senseless … how blatantly evil the terrorists were/are.
Who can forget that day? I won’t. I went back in time on my blog and found the following post that I will reprint here. It is of a memorial I went to on the first anniversary of the terror attacks in 2002.
The following was also written on the very first manifestation of my blog,
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
A year ago today Delana and I cried together on the phone about September 11th. We consoled each other over pizza as we watched the horror unfold throughout the day. Last night I watched a special, forget what channel, but it was about the firemen who were searching for their friends, brothers, sons, fathers in the rubble. I cried a lot and felt transported back to the moment it happened. Kind of scared to do it but I am glad I watched.
Tonight I went downtown to Lake Eola to watch the memorial procession and listen to the Symphony perform Mozart’s Requiem. There was a lot that happened that made me even more sad for our country now than then. There was a LOT of disrespect in my opinion but I am not going into it because it just gets me going to bad. I can’t believe some of the folks that went. I will leave it at that.
So, in meditating on the good parts of the evening and I am reminded of the two little ladies sitting to the left front of where I was. They sang the anthem and said the pledge of allegiance. They were serene and thoughtful. During certain parts of the symphony the taller of the two would hold her candle up way high…oblivious to everything but the music. I loved saying the pledge with them and felt a connection with history. They were old enough to have lived through a lot of pain so their wisdom was reassuring even though they never said a word other than to honor the country they obviously loved. I also saw two muslim women, at different places in the crowd, with their heads covered in the traditional manner. I was glad to see them participate safely. What courage it must have taken for them to be there. Also, the black pastor with a soothing voice opened the evening with a prayer that honored Jesus Christ and the Holy Father Almighty.
Nature even seemed to be in on the event. The weeping willow by the lake lived up to its name and a mist fell during the first hour or so of the memorial. A flock of brilliant white Egrets came to the lake when the bagpipes began to play. And a sweet little girl handed me the most respectful tract I have seen about 9/11 (produced by Campus Crusade.) She may only have been 6 or 7 and sweetly said “Mister, would you like to have this?” I said “I sure would, thank you very much.” She was happy
I was one of the five thousand that got candles and it really was gorgeous. People kept them lit as we filtered away past the twin beams of light that went up into the downtown sky. Some were in red containers, blue containers and white containers. I had a white one and Bill and a friend of his had blue ones
So even though I was shocked at the audacity of some there, I am glad I went. The Requiem was beautiful of course. They had some of the words to it in the program and it is so perfect for the situation. The only thing I am lacking is getting to see the President’s address. I hope I can see that somehow
My prayers are once again with the survivors and surviving families of 9/11 as well as all the victims of terror across the world. Good will triumph over evil. Of this I am sure.
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