Reality Dawned September 11, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in People.comments closed
I worked from home on 9/11 in 2001, feeling a bit under the weather. On-screen chatter from the living room TV faded to white noise as I typed.
Abruptly, the background chatter surfaced, commanding my attention.
Wikipedia ~ World Trade Centers (in Public Domain)
I stopped typing.
I walked down the hall.
I stared at the TV.
The Twin Towers collapsed.
My mind raced to explain the image.
What’s going on?
A preview for a new disaster movie?
It can’t be real.
It’s not real.
Wikipedia ~ Statue of Liberty (in Public Domain)
The Twin Towers came down again.
And again.
And again.
Time moved forward.
Reality dawned.
The Pentagon billowed smoke from its walls and roof.
Panicked people streamed from buildings in terror and tears.
A captive passenger on a hijacked plane uttered his last words . . . “I love you.”
Reality dawned . . .
Again.
I hugged BFF.
Safe at home.
Just slightly under the weather.
Do you recall the events of September 11th with extreme clarity? As you watched the surreal images, how long before reality dawned?
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United We Stand September 11, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in People, Poetry.comments closed
On September 11, 2001, as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center burned, Lady Liberty stood tall, sending a message of Freedom, Hope and Unity to the world through ever silent lips.
Wikipedia ~ Statue of Liberty (in Public Domain)
Emma Lazarus penned words that Lady Liberty shares with visitors:
The New Colossus
Wikipedia ~ Statue of Liberty (in Public Domain)
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Emma Lazarus, 1883
Related posts: 11.9.11 (Tilly) * Learn Live Hope (Today, I Think) * I Am Changed (JannaTWrites) * Fly The Flag Today (Brain Rants) * Never Forget (Write Up My Life) * 911 Our Common Thread (Jeanne’s Blog) * And Who Are We Now? (Paula) * Transmigration (Judith) * On 9/11 (James McShane)
Spirit Lights The Way 