Make No Mistake - Freedom Still Rings

I had the opportunity this week to share with my high schooler about 9/11. She was 6 years old at the time and really had no memory of the events that happened that day. Retelling was reliving. It gave me a deep sense of purpose to help young people today understand. I think I feel like those who experienced Pearl Harbor. While we as a new generation know what happened, it was so far removed that our hearts do not break when we think about it. Our tears do not fall for those who went through it. Probably not so with someone over the age of 65. Pearl Harbor is probably as raw and alive for them when they retell it as 9/11 is for us. When she asked, "What was it like, Mom? What were you doing when it happened?" I was transported back to my office at Priority Marketing. I was talking on the phone to Teri Hansen, the company's owner and president. We were interrupted by a telephone call from her husband, then the chief of EMS. We learned about the tragedy, but didn't have a television. The Internet was still very new and was innundated - so although we were able to get some glimpses of what happened, the system was completely overloaded. After we sat there stunned and in shock for a while, I tried to gather myself and "get back to work" I called a client who said, "Colleen, I can't deal with this right now, I'm watching New York City being destroyed." It was like a slap I needed. What was I thinking? You can't go back to normal when something like this is going on. In fact, an event like 9/11 changes you forever. After the plane went down in Pennsylvania, I began to panic. How many more planes would fall from the sky? Was my family safe? My father was staying just outside of Dover Airforce Base - was he safe? We all came home that night and hugged each other. I cried and went to my friend's house. Her husband was just finishing up his two weeks as an Army reservist and she received a call that he wouldn't be returning anytime soon and to bring some supplies to Homestead. After the shock and pain settled, I noticed something though that I had never felt or experienced in my life to that point. Patriotism. I watched my brother return from Vietnam and be persecuted. No heros. I watched the President of the United States resign in humilation. No pride. I watched our world trudge along while citizens became the "me" generation and the sense of entitlement to all that was good started to emerge. The other guy wasn't important and our nation was a joke. Then, 9/11 changed all that in my eyes and heart. For the first time, I was proud to be an American. Watching people pull together to help and feeling a deep need to be one of those people overwhelmed us all. Our generation - the Generation Xers - never felt connected to "The Cause" as the Baby Boomers often did. We felt hopeless and cynical. But 9/11 changed that for a while. Instead of me-first, we watched our nation step aside out of courtesy. People smiled at each other more. The bigger picture came into view. People were scurrying to get flags and for an entire generation, we finally understood what the flag really meant. For the first time in a generation, we listened to the Star Spangled Banner and cried. Wow. Never really listened to those words before. Now I understood what they meant. Our flag was still there! Following 9/11, Tom Sterbens, a pastor at a local church recorded an amazing song called Freedom Still Rings. The lyrics are unbelievable. At Priority Marketing, Teri dedicated her staff to produce a video to accompany the song. The cd and video were to be sold with proceeds to go to the families of the firefighters and police who were killed. The team consisted of Teri Hansen, Olivia Rill, Christine Polito, Kevin Owen, Gary Sharp, Lindsey Grimes and me. I hope I didn't forget anyone, but those are the ones I remember. We spent days either searching for photos, putting together the video or handling everything else while the video was in production. I am going to try and post this video - I found it on someone's MySpace. I hope they don't mind. I thought about the after affects of 9/11. It inspired artists to use their talents - whatever those talents were - to help make a difference. Musicians put on benefit concerts, Bruce Springsteen wrote an entire album - The Rising - to memorialize the event. Country singers wrote rebel songs to inspire patriotism. Painters created visual memories, sculptors crafted breathtaking sculptures. As our civilization has done forever - we tried to make an unspeakable horror into something beautiful. I think we did this because of the patriotism aspect. That burning feeling inside that you are part of something much bigger. In Europe, if something like this happens, their neighbors say, "Boy, that's a shame that happened to THEM" In the United States, if one our states is attacked - it happened to US! We developed an immediate brotherhood with our kin in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. Some of the girls from our office bought tickets to support the crashed tourism industry in New York. They just went to take in a show. That gesture was felt by many New Yorkers who felt vulnerable and alone. These courageous girls (remember - flying was not exactly a popular mode of transportation at the time) took the time and money to fly all the way from Florida to New York, just to let New Yorkers know they cared. We became all part of a bigger family. So was 9/11 a tragedy? You betcha. The worst in our current memory. But our God, the one who was honored by the president's appeal after 9/11 to the country to PRAY, gave us all the courage and strength to pull together and get through it. Please don't allow our children to forget 9/11 like we have forgotten Pearl Harbor. Don't let this fade into history as just another bad thing that happened. Let's help them realize that no matter how bad things get, there is always hope. Americans are good people. Yes, there are bad apples. Yes, our government is a little shaky sometimes. Yes, we argue alot about silly things...and important things. But in the end, we are STILL the most amazing group of people in the entire world. Nowhere in this world is there a land mass the size of the United States that would foster the brotherhood we feel here in the UNITED States. We can go to bed feeling sure that if something really bad happens in Florida - our brothers and sisters in California and Kentucky, New York and South Dakota - all of those other States will be there for us. We may not always agree, but I can guarantee that we are a nation of honorable men, women and children who when pushed will push back to protect our land and those who live in it. I love you all. God Bless each of us. I've posted the video - but I'm not certain it will play. I'll also post it on my facebook page. We can never ever forget.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6602959