Posted on 09/13/2001 1:41:18 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
She meant to do it long ago.
Julie Goodman wanted to hang Old Glory from the front of her family's Houston home to show love for this country. For many reasons, the young family just never got around to it.
Then the unthinkable of improbable tragedies ripped out this country's last remnant of innocence: Terrorists used hijacked commercial planes to level the the World Trade Center's twin towers to dust and to attack the Pentagon.
Goodman knew it was time to do something.
On Wednesday Goodman and her 2-year-old daughter made a trip to Kronberg's Flags and Flagpoles to buy a 3-foot-by-5-foot American flag. Just like they had always planned.
"It's sad it takes something like this to motivate us," Goodman says.
The attacks, being likened to Pearl Harbor, have awakened people's greatest fears, causing them to question their safety. But it also has aroused patriotism not seen since the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Around the city and the nation, people are displaying flags from their homes, apartment balconies, cars and public roadways. Young people are mumbling about enlisting in the military. People are being sent e-mails, urging them to wear red, white and blue today. And once-shelved patriotic songs are saturating the airwaves.
Goodman says the flag gives her a sense of pride and comfort in a country that rallies around those in crisis.
"What has happened to normal?" Goodman asks as her daughter, Lena, waves a hand-held flag by her side. "What's normal anymore? The flag is normal. It gives you a sense that everything will be OK."
Ron Kronberg, owner of Kronberg's Flags and Flagpoles, says he sold at least 700 flags 3-feet-by-5-feet and larger from noon Tuesday to noon Wednesday. Many more hand-held ones were snapped up, too.
"People get frustrated, and they look for the one symbol they depend on, which is Old Glory," he says. "No matter how upset people get with politicians, they're still patriotic."
Kronberg says his business is up several hundred percent. At this rate, he'll run out of flags in a few days. His staff is already sewing more, especially since a few oil companies, which he would not name, have ordered several thousand flags because of the tragedy.
"Most of the national supplies are drying up," says Kronberg, whose business opened in 1954. "But it's heart-warming to see people want to fly their flags."
Money Makers, another flag store, is also almost out of its supply. Since Tuesday, the store has had lines out the front door and winding to the street.
Music has also been an important outlet for people to display their patriotism.
Wednesday morning, 99.1 KODA played the national anthem for commuters who had to return to work in this time of unprecedented mourning.
KKRW 93.7, which plays classic rock, and KIKK 95.7, which spins country alternative, also played patriotic songs such as Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA.
For half the day Wednesday AM 790 KBME played tunes such as Stars and Stripes Forever and God Bless the USA.
"Our audience is made up of aging baby boomers and seniors -- men and women who fought for our country's freedom in World War II, Korea and Vietnam," says Ronnie Renfrow, the station's music director. "Many remember the attack on Pearl Harbor firsthand. We'll be playing the music that inspired and comforted our listeners when America rose to the challenge in the past. Those songs are suddenly, sadly, appropriate again."
Ben DeSoto-Chronicle staff
Conrod Thomas, a staffer with FM 93.7 Classic Rock, The Arrow, gave away a clutch of
miniature American flags to blood donors at the George R. Brown Convention Center
Wednesday. Donors had to wait to up to four hours to give blood.
Houston military recruiters said Wednesday that there was at least a 25 percent increase in the number of people calling or coming into storefronts to ask about enlisting.
They said at least half of those they spoke to Wednesday mentioned that they felt compelled to see how they could help their country, given what happened in New York City and Washington, D.C.
In West University, 3-foot-by-5-foot flags are staked into the ground of virtually every home and church along Buffalo Speedway from Bissonnet south. Drivers slow down to stare at the impressive rows of flapping and waving Stars and Stripes.
One parent mentioned that she saw other parents stay at the school to recite the Pledge of Allegiance with their kids.
Reaction has been similar across the country.
In Long Beach, a flag shop sold out of its stock of American flags. Floridians were flocking to buy flags and guns, according to news reports.
Three men reportedly waved a huge American flag on the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, Calif., much to the pleasure of other drivers who honked in approval. And in Honolulu, a man driving a small pickup flying an American flag circled the capital district, honking his horn.
Pastor John Haynes of New Beginnings Community Church in Lake Jackson sent out a patriotic flier inviting members to a Wednesday prayer vigil. It read: "GOD BLESS AMERICA! God is still on the Throne! Jesus Christ is still Lord! And the Statue of Liberty still stands!"
He was at Kronberg's to buy a second auditorium-size flag for the vigil.
"The flag stands for the best of America," Haynes says. "When something like this (tragedy) happens, the best of America shines through."
A retired couple, the Bralys, also invested in a new American flag to stake into their front lawn.
"I feel like Lee Greenwood. I am proud to be an American," Tom Braly says before heading to his car to listen to his tape of patriotic tunes. He blared Whitney Houston's rousing rendition of Star Spangled Banner, which she sang at the height of the Gulf War at the 1991 Super Bowl.
At the Bralys' side was Pam Creamer, Paula Braly's sister, who is visiting from New York. It was Creamer's way of trying to support her fellow New Yorkers, whom she can't be with because of flights being grounded.
"I was taking a walk down Buffalo Speedway in West University because of the flags," she says. "I did it twice, because it felt good."
Creamer pauses.
"Comforting," she adds.
Chronicle reporter Mary Flood and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
Clearwater, Florida-- Residents show pride in American flag
I'm writing from Russia, and you would not believe the attitude here. We all watched the horror on CNN live satellite feed - NTV, ORT, RTL all switched to CNN often without translation. Most people here had tears in their eyes, old babushki when they hear my accent grab my hand and tell me Bog khranit Ameriku (God bless America). After the attack two nights ago Putin spoke to tell the American people that the Russian people understand our tragedy, that they are ready to provide all help possible - even military assistance. He closed with Amerika my s vami (America we are with you).
Outside the US embassy there is a MOUNTAIN of flowers, from simple Russians. A bouquet costs several days pay, so it is quite a gesture. Even Zhirinovskiy is calling for Musselman blood and to help the US.
At Noon today in Moscow, an hour ago, they declared a minuta molchaniya - Minute of Silence, and the president asked all Russians to stop and pray for America. A few minutes ago I drank a beer with a colonel of infantry - Russian - he told me an interesting story:
Two nights ago when the Mujahideen in Chechnya heard of the WTC attack they made a holiday. They fired weapons, launched RPGs, and danced about their hideouts with glee. Russian forward observers detected the activity and several airstrikes and counter-insurgency operations were launched. They colonel reports that they were unichtozhili pol'nost'yu - completed destroyed. He says that they are ready to do the same in Afghanistan - they still have roadmaps ;-)
Bog Khranit Ameriku i Rossiyu!!! God bless America and Russia.
Skazeete yego "blagadaryou vas!"
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