Reflections on Patriot's Day

Well, here we are on Patriot’s Day, September 11, 2009; eight years after terrorists launched a series of attacks against free, peace-loving people and the very core of their beliefs. People ask me from time to time what was the greatest story I ever covered and invariably I tell them it was 9-11.

My most vivid memories of that date come from a 60-minute videotape I have locked away in my desk at work. It’s an old feed tape we use to use for collecting news stories, but on September 11th, 2001 I used it to grab every piece of video I could from the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Crash of Flight 93. On that tape are images of that day (many of which have not been seen since it happened), but what are most striking to me are the words spoken: the audio tracks. You can hear the shock and disbelief in the voices, but there is something else; a profound sadness for those who have just lost their lives.

I come from a generation of baby-boomers. We weren’t even born when Pearl Harbor was attacked. We didn’t gather around radios to be stirred into action by President Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech. In fact, I wondered what historians would remember about President Bush’s remarks to the nation on September 11, 2001. The strange thing is that most people can’t remember what he said. Here is part of his remarks from an address to a grief-stricken nation that night:
“Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices -- secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers. Moms and dads. Friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.
The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve. America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.”

I don’t watch my tape very often. It’s like a home movie that contains some very tragic images. It brings me to tears sometimes. I reminds of things I don’t want to remember, but at the same time, don’t want to forget. TV crews covering the attacks turning the power of the media into tools of compassion as they splashed the photos and posters of those unaccounted for across the television screens of the world, firefighters racing to the scene - firefighters who did their duty and tried to save the lives of others while putting their own lives at risk, crowd filling the streets, waving flags in support – holding candles in makeshift memorials to the dead. At Buckingham Palace, the band played “The National Anthem” instead of “God Save the Queen” and the closing shot that night from the networks was of the Manhattan skyline with smoke still pouring from the scene as rain began to fall.

Not all the images were from Ground Zero. There is the story about passengers on a plane that was diverted to Labrador and how people who lived there fed them and gave them shelter after all the planes were ordered from the air.

In my closet at home, I have an old tattered American Flag: weathered and worn. I guess it is the closest thing to a family icon that I own. I have it stored in a box with a slip of paper explaining that the flag was put up immediately after September 11 and flew everyday until it became too worn to fly anymore. It’s also a reminder that there was a time in the days after September 11th when you couldn’t find an American Flag in this country. People bought nearly everyone they could and flew them.

So, here we are eight years later. It’s a funny thing, but the words that serve me best these days I remembered from my high school Civics class; written by another American Patriot more than 200 years ago. His name was Thomas Paine and this is what he wrote on December 23rd, 1776 in The Crisis:

“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”


I gave a copy of those words to a young man headed to Iraq a few years ago…to lift his spirits when times seemed their darkest, just as they had in the days after September 11th.
God bless America.