A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day...911 Week, Day ONE 09-09-02

Written by JohnHuang2 with Graphics and Layout by Billie | JohnHuang2

[.45MAN]

How right you are, but History is History we can learn and go forward. Yes thank G_D for GWB!!!!!!

[JohnHuang2]

My small town has a beautiful arboretum and on 9/11 the entire community will turn out to plant a flag in the ground with a personal message and victim's name. Wednesday this area will be a field of flags:

Your community illustrates how the spirit of America is alive and well. I salute you all.

[lodwick]

Editorial from a Romanian newspaper

Why are Americans so united? They don't resemble one another even if you paint them! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. Some of them are nearly extinct, others are incompatible with one another, and in matters of religious beliefs, not even God can count how many they are.

Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about. The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand. After the first moments of panic, they raised the flag on the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a minister or the president was passing. On every occasion they started singing their traditional song: "God Bless America!".

Silent as a rock, I watched the charity concert broadcast on Saturday once, twice, three times, on different TV channels. There were Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stalone, James Wood, and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together. The American's solidarity spirit turned them into a choir. Actually, choir is not the word. What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American soul. What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton, nor Colin Powell could say without facing the risk of stumbling over words and sounds, was being heard in a great and unmistakable way in this charity concert.

I don't know how it happened that all this obsessive singing of America didn't sound croaky, nationalist, or ostentatious! It made you green with envy because you weren't able to sing for your country without running the risk of being considered chauvinist, ridiculous, or suspected of who-knows-what mean interests.

I watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who fought with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that would have killed other hundreds or thousands of people. How on earth were they able to bow before a fellow human?

Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit which nothing can buy.

What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases which risk of sounding like commonplaces. I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion.

Only freedom can work such miracles!

[ST.LOUIE1]

Good morning, BillieBlue. : )

Outstanding!

[lodwick]

Thanks for the update - excellent news. Just excellent.

[JohnHuang2]

Thank you much, friend =^)

[ST.LOUIE1]

King, you've topped yourself. Absolutely wonderful!

Good morning, FRiend. : )

[JohnHuang2]

I thank JohnHuang, for there is no way I could have put this together without his excellent writing!

Oh, you're so i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y modest! Face it: You're a genius. End of story. ;^)

[Pippin]

hi, Billie,

I am in tears as I read the opening of this thread.

John sure has a way with words!

As you quoted the words of Alan Jackson's song. I can tell you were I was on that day.

As most know I work for the Federal Government. I was at work that morning, In the SSA building in downtown Baltimore.

At first I was unsure of what was happening, I was doing my usual job when I heard someone say "Oh, My God!" I turned to listen to my coworkers. At first I thought they were talking about something they saw on TV in a movie. Or something that was happening in Baltimore, We have a world trade canter tower in Baltimore's innerharbor complex. I thought that building had caught fire. I turned on my radio to see what it was about, I could not beleave my ears!

I was in shock the rest of the day and went home in tears of fright, wandering what was happening next. I wasn't registered with FR then, I was only a lurker, but I went to FR that day and every report and article of news gave me chills.

I'm going to post on the main forum my memories and my thoughts of that day, but I'm telling you some of it in breif here.

I whant you to know that what kept me from going into total panick was my faith in God and my trust in our president and our troops. and the good people on FR!

I pray for all who lost their lives that day and for their families.

MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA!

[JohnHuang2]

Thank you, thank you, my friend.

[ST.LOUIE1]

Hi, Pip! Good to see you! : )

[Pippin]

Good Morning, Louie!

((((((HUG))))))))

[ST.LOUIE1]

I hear you're back, Rascal! Yipeeee!!!! : )

[JohnHuang2]

I want you to know that what kept me from going into total panick was my faith in God and my trust in our president and our troops. and the good people on FR!

My sentiments exactly. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, my friend.

[Pippin]

Thank you, John!

[Pippin]

UH! OH!

[ru4liberty]

Good morning, Billie. I've given up on trying not to cry these days. I'll just keep a box a Kleenex with me at all times.

I'll never forget that day. I surfed past CBS and saw Bryant Gumbal talking about a plane hitting the first tower. As we all know, it went downhill from there.

At the time, I was taking care of my father 24/7, and I knew I would have to tell him about everything that happened. Although he suffered from some demensia, he understood the gravity of the events that day.

I remember walking out to the mailbox that afternoon to check the mail. I looked around the neighborhood and everything was exactly the same and yet nothing was the same. Nor would it ever be again.

I lost Daddy a week later. There will be a lot of tears this week.

[ST.LOUIE1]

Helloooo, fuzzy! : )

Beautiful thread today. The graphics are outstanding.

[JohnHuang2]

More than welcome =^)

[Billie]

It was a very emotional day. We stayed in Europe until the 8th of October. The one thing that throughly amazed me was the kindness of the people we met in Europe. Needless to say we were glad to get home to the USA.

You were there for almost a month after the initial attack, and one day after we dropped our first bombs. The USO Canteen FReeper Style was started on October 7th....it's the way I remember the day we debuted that thread.

Thank you, MM7, I've told you many times how much we appreciate your daily posts and eagles. :)