What a Beautiful poem! Thanks for sharing that SCOTT...
13 years later and the thoughts of what happened that day still hurts like hell... It feels like 100 punches in the gut if I take too much time to think about all of my friends who died that day... One person in particular was William Herlihy who was a Fireman and one of my best friends since the second grade... He was the best handball player I knew and would always end up in the championship match @ the local city park where we used to play... My Mom remembers him because he always asked for seconds when he would stay over for dinner... He would give you the shirt off his back and backed you up if there was any trouble starting to brew...
Billy was a stand up friend who was always selfless in helping others and he made me a better man from what I saw in him... He had a wife and two sons and I try to keep in touch, but sometimes it's hard to because she's moved on in her life with another man and the boys are so busy with their new lives... Sometimes I think they forgot I am "Uncle Hank" because when I do get in touch, they hardly recognize my voice, they seem very distant in their mannerisms over the phone.. Maybe I'm reading way too much into this but, it's like I lost a family of friends from the terrorist attack that day which will sadden me and yet, will bring back wonderful memories of the past... Like when out of nowhere one day while we were playing handball, Billy would hit me in the side of my head with the ball as I was mesmerized by this girl strolling by through the fence on the sidewalk and almost instantly brought me back to reality by his shouting "Get it together Cassanova! Concentrate on the game dude! The next time I'll aim for your jewels!" And the day his first son was born, how proud a father he was passing out cigars to everyone he knew with a smile from ear to ear... I lost some more friends that were Police Officers who never in a million years would anyone who knew them, think that they could become cops based on the way they behaved when we were growing up...
R.I.P. Brad, Jorge, Joe and Tony... This is why it still hurts so much!
There are so many beautiful memories I have of my brother from another mother, William Herlihy that I will cherish until the day I die... R.I.P. My Brother Billy.
Then there was my friend Ricky who dived through a plate glass window just to escape the debris of one of the buildings collapsing where he was and ended up without a scratch... His little brother Chris who was working on the opposite side of a smaller building which had debris collapse on top of it, also escaping unhurt and how they described how they couldn't see in front of their faces when the debris started raining down on them... They came over to East Brady, PA where I live these days to visit in the summer last year, and we sat around reminiscing about what happened that day... To hear from them what they personally went through, and how they and thousands more had to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge in order to catch a subway to get back to their homes gave me goosebumps... Those guys make me a rich man by having friends like them!
There was also tremendous relief shortly after that day when I found out that my Sister was alive because that day she had to work uptown instead of the South Tower where she normally worked, and she was so selfless to hurry down to as close to ground zero as she could possibly get to and volunteer for the Red Cross to help out with the rescue effort which sadly turned into a recovery operation shortly afterwards... she stayed there for two weeks straight handing out coffee & hot meals to the Firemen, Cops, Army National Guardsmen, Air Force, Marines, and some Sailors who were demolition specialists doing the opposite of what they were trained to do and many of the wonderful rescue workers who were mostly construction workers who traveled from all over the country to see if they could help out... I have a hardhat that she wore during those dark days which I cherish and dust off every September 10th in memory to all of the Americans who came together as one nation and to show the terrorists that they cannot break us! Unless, we all forget and don't bother to preserve and pass on the legacy of that day...
Because of what happened that day in New York, The Pentagon, over the skies in Shanksville, PA the country, united as one people determined to get through the Catastrophe they witnessed on that cloudless sunny day in early September on September 11th, 2001... On that day, the country no longer had any partisan bickering, no Republicans, no Democrats, no polarization, no rich or poor and no divisiveness that we see and listen to everyday it seems... This country truly behaved like The United States of America as it should everyday! That behavior is what's missing in this wonderful country I call home... And it shouldn't take a disaster of monumental proportions to unite us as one nation under God! What ever happened to indivisible with liberty and justice for all? The fact that we as a nation are so divided makes me wonder who really understands what pledging allegiance to the flag means! We must not regress back to the status quo of divisiveness as in the past!
Indivisible? As long as we stay divided as a people, the terrorists win... As long as liberty is denied to many, the terrorists win... And as long as there is more than one standard of justice in this great nation of ours, the terrorists win! We cannot continue down this path to oblivion! We all need to always remember that we are all Americans no matter what our origins are... Regardless of what class we are designated by our material wealth... Regardless of the religions we practice either! Because that is the beauty of the USA!
For the longest time this country portrayed a sense of pride because of our diversity as a nation where anyone regardless of their origins could become successful from where they were once struggling to survive instead of morphing into a country of haves and have nots, and blindly pointing their fingers at any demographic that doesn't pull their own weight, or has it too good, or are a burden to the rest of us... Instead of rallying together like we did for a short period of time from that fateful day!
That day was a lesson for all of us to remember and to emulate in our daily lives and to practice in all of our affairs... And it would be a sad day indeed if after all we have gone through - fighting the many wars (not just Afganistan and Iraq) that we have done, losing many of our loved ones, or coming back both physically and mentally scarred for life as a result, or going through financial crises, natural disasters, school shootings, and other traumatic experiences for us to remain as a divided nation so polarized that I wonder if could we actually reverse our course to again sailing the calm seas that made our nation the envy of the world without having another September 11th...
Please remember the Pledge of Allegiance, and what it really stands for and being indivisible with liberty and justice for ALL! After all we're not just pledging allegiance to the flag... We're also pledging allegiance to the Republic and a way of life for which it stands... Think about it...
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
That little girl would be saddened to grow up and realize that she lost her Daddy who fought and died for preserving the ideals in the pledge that are no longer taken seriously.
UNITED WE STAND - DIVIDED WE FALL.
Edit: Sorry about that... I guess I got a bit carried away but, I still stand by what I wrote and yet, I didn't want to hurt anyone's feeling when I did, so if I did I apologize.
Respectfully,
Henry