Remember

Steel birds tore through the sky,

Carrying loved ones of you and I.

Twin towers standing tall,

Too strong, we thought, to ever fall.

Those birds of prey broke our hearts

As we watched our world fall apart.

Steel wings cut through flesh and bone

But could not destroy our soul.

More targets, more lives,

The toll still untold.

Overwhelming fear and heartache

Filled every home.

Remember those who were lost.

Fight for those memories at any cost.

Remember freedom as it rings loud.

Remember freedom and stand proud.

Sadness and confusion give way,

Keep faith in a new day.

We will find the nest from which those birds came,

Tear them down without shame.

Our hearts are filled to burst

With love for all those hurt.

Together as a nation, a world, we stand tall.

We will move past the horror we saw.

Remember those who were lost.

Fight for those memories at any cost.

Remember freedom as it rings loud.

Remember freedom and stand proud.

Thought of the day!

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES

... and those they left behind

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love." --- Washington Irving

September 11th through the eyes of the Statue of Liberty

A single tear rolled down my cheek as I watched the scene that would change America forever. No longer would her people be able to walk down the streets unafraid. No longer would they be able to travel the globe freely. Soon they would look upon foreigners with distrust and prejudge many based on apearance. One great nation was being attacked. This attack on the American freedoms was felt most greatly by me.

“Why me?” you might ask. I was standing in New York Harbor when the first plane struck, and I was still there when the second plane disappeared into tower number two of the World Trade Center. I watched in horror as the two towers fell. My heart ached at the senseless loss of lives. I knew that this event would become part of America’s great history. I wanted so much to go and help those people, but for the body of water separating us, I could not.

Suddenly, I became aware of a tugging. It became a tug of war between good and evil! Unseen hands were trying to rip that precious Declaration of Independence from my grasp! I clung to it with all my strength and pressed it close to my heart. “No!” I cried.

I was hugging it to my heart! The broken chains about my feet were closing in once again to lock me into bondage, but some unseen force of patriotism was saving me, and keeping the chains fallen away. A breath of hateful wind caused my flame, my eternal flame, to flicker, but only for a moment. The dust from the crumbling towers was trying to snuff out the flame in defeat. But again an unseen act of unity or maybe the American spirit rekindled that light. Such an attack on our great nation, and me, must not go unpunished! Evil must not have its way. America must fight back when she realizes this was no accident. We must be united as one to defeat this great foe.

My crown began tingling, as I felt the eyes of the world on me. The world, holding its breath, was waiting, watching, andwondering. “Will this great nation rise again?”

“Yes! She will!” was my triumphant reply.

"Give me your tired, your poor, wour huddlede masses yearning to breath free; send those, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me; I lift my lam beside the golden door."

For at that moment President Bush was standing a-top the rubble at Ground Zero saying, “The people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon.”

“U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.!” was the chant screaming its way through all of America. Her people, as one, came together to support and defend their freedoms! They were not going to allow these terrorists to destroy the land that they loved. “God Bless America!” was their unanimous cry. These Americans were not going to turn the other cheek. They were going to defeat terrorism and defend those gripped by it.

Dear fellow Americans,

Today, I am still standing here proudly in New York Harbor, reflecting and remembering the events that once shook America six years ago. May we never forget September 11, 2001. May that anger of being attacked burn in our hearts until terrorism is snuffed out forever. May we never forget the freedoms given to us by God and fought for by our forefathers. May we defend and protect these freedoms with all of our strength and all of our might. Never forget, my America, that day, September 11, 2001.

Yours Truly,

“The First Lady of the World”
Lady Liberty

Pray for our troops

Our American soldiers have sacrificed so much for the freedoms of America. The least that we can do for them is thank God for them and pray that he will protect them. I think of those who have given their lives for us in Iraq. For instance, my cousin, he is in Iraq and lost two of the men in his unit to a road side bomb. If you were to ask him his feelings of those things that had happened, he would tell you that he is willingly over there like all of our soldiers. Now, it is time that we here back home stand up and thank them for what they do. I am amazed at how much people down our troops. It breaks my heart to see people who do not even think of our troops. Even if one does not agree with the war, we can still appreciate our troops. They are out there fighting those who came into America on September 11, 2001, and killed those in the Twin Towers (World Trade Center). Please take time to read this following poem as it has touched myself deeply. It is rather lengthy but you will be touched by it if you read it with an open heart. May it be a blessing to you.

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,

I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.

My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,

My daughter besid me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,

Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,

Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,

Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.

In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,

So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,

But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.

Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the

sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,

And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,

A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,

Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.

Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,

Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,

"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!

Put down you pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,

You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,

Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light

Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night." "It's my duty to

stand at the front of the line,

That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,

I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December.'

Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."

My dad stood his watch in teh jungles of 'Nam',

And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,

But my wife sends me pictures, he's sue got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,

The red, white, and blue... an American flag.

I can live through the cold and teh being alone,

Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and sleet,

I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another,

Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.

Who stand at the front against any and all,

To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "Harbor no fright,

Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

But isn't there someting I can do, at the least,

"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,

For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,

"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.

To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,

To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,

To know you remember we fought and we bled.

Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,

That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

- Author Unknown -