War & Remembrance
With apologies to Herman Wouk for lifting the title.
When asked to submit my memories of ten years ago, I thought about it and concluded I had little to add. I saw it on TV, like most people, I was horrified, enraged, terrified, and heartbroken, like most people. What surprised me, ten years later, is how near those emotions remain. Horror at the atrocity, fury at the evil men who would murder so many innocents, terrified at what enormities the future may hold, and heartbreak at all the deaths and destruction that have followed.
As a native Washingtonian, I was luckier than many in having no one I knew personally die in either place. A friend was working in the White House, he evacuated on foot, as did many, while his wife waited in terror for news. Barbara Olson, on the plane that hit the Pentagon, was a friend of his; a friend of my sister's from Walter Reed was in the building when the flight hit; and a childhood friend's aunt was as flight attendant on the doomed flight. If I recall right, they recovered her hand to bury. Horror, rage, terror, and heartbreak.
The town I live in and its transriparian neighbor held a joint commemoration today, organized and held by their police, fire, and rescue organizations, and attended by representatives from emergency-services providers from all over the river valley we live in.
It was a somber affair, with most of the police and firemen arrayed in a semicircle around a field dotted with 407 American flags, each representing one of their counterparts who died that day, and were remembered by a combining of the fireman's and policeman's funerary ritual, a tolling of a bell and rifle volleys, the latter performed by elderly VFW members some of whom were arthritic enough they couldn't shoulder their rifles and so fired from the hip. A warped piece of steel from the World Trade Center was brought in, and the sacrifices of servicemen remembered in a solemn playing of Taps by two buglers.
Finally, the uniformed personnel laid white carnations by the flags, one for each of the 2,417 civilians murdered that day. Even five or six at a time, it took a very long time. The politicians who spoke were mercifully brief and appropriate, even alluding to the need for continuing resolve and steadfastness, when they might have taken refuge in maudlin sentimentality and Oprahesque clichés. One speaker did maunder a bit about “healing” to no real point, but overall it was dignified, respectful, and appropriate to the gravity of the occasion.
So, despite a great deal of nonsense being bandied about today, at least a couple little towns in Wisconsin seem to understand the loss we suffered and the unwelcome challenge with which we were presented.
What have you seen today?
Requiescant in pace. Præservit Deus Americæ.
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Aug '10
Re: War & Remembrance
At the edge of my yard I put a table on which I put one red, one white and one blue medium sized, glass candle holder and candle. The candles have been lit since 7pm. Some cars are slowing a bit as they pass. Earlier, kids on bikes casually drifted over to look at the flickering lights. I'm sitting outside, somewhat out of sight but nearby enough to monitor. I have reading material. It's peaceful. I'll stay outside and keep the memorial candles lit until at least 10pm.
Edited on Sep 11, 2011 at 6:43pm