9/11 plus 20 years

                     “ A Terrible  Resolve ”

 

 

      On September 11^th, 2001 the world, as we know it, turned upside down in America. Our concept of personal security and invulnerability came crashing down around us with the fall of the World Trade Center.

 

       The age of innocence that had developed in 

America, since the Viet Nam War, lies now in ruins 

amidst the rubble in New York City and Washington D.C.. 

We see our world neighbors, and each other, in a new 

light since the attack. With some, like Canada and 

Britain, there is a warm appreciation for the steadfast 

support and courage of friends who have long stood 

beside us in good times and bad. With others, we must 

now look through hooded eyes, wondering who they 

actually are.

 

       In America, we see each other more clearly as 

well. The ethnic, religious and racial characteristics 

that used to make so much difference to some, now appear 

more trivial. We are Americans all. This is something 

familiar to anyone who has ever traveled outside the 

United States. All of the “hyphenated differences” 

disappear once you cross our borders.

 

       There is one thing that we can develop from this 

tragedy. It is a new and firmer appreciation of our 

sense of national self, a better idea of who and what we 

are as Americans. The generous outpourings of help and 

relief money, from thousands of communities across the 

nation, did more to cement the bonds of our national 

unity than any event in living memory. We stand together 

now, a united people, against an evil that must be fought.

 

       In another era, that of World War II, a grizzled 

veteran Admiral, of the forces of a war-time foe, had 

the foresight to observe something about our national 

character. His younger colleagues were celebrating the 

damage inflicted to our Naval Instillations at Pearl 

Harbor in another sneak attack. The older and wiser 

Admiral commented ruefully “ I fear we have awakened a 

sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”  

It would have wiser for some of these thugs to read up 

on our History before attacking us. 

 

             And when these modern gangsters are brought 

to justice, we will return to our shops and our plows, 

like we have so many times before in this land of 

citizen soldiers and all-weather patriots. For, the 

United States of America is a dream and an idea that 

must and will survive. We stand as a beacon of hope to a 

world that desperately needs relief from hunger and 

want. That kind of an idea and an ideal will never be 

easily extinguished, no matter how many times we are 

attacked.

 

                                            -30-

 

                                      (454 words)

 

                            Joseph Xavier Martin

 

                                          10/4/01