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| Here we are getting ready to board the plane. What number is it? Number 11. Now I get to go home and see my family. O.k. here I am, seat number...12. I can't wait, I'm going home! We are taking off, why is everyone screaming? Why are these men yelling at me? Oh no! We are being hijacked! Hush little baby, don't cry. You are safe in my arms, we will get through this. Where are we going? New York! Why are we here? What are those men saying? The Trade Center! We are going to crash inside the Trade Center! I better call my mom. I need to tell her I'm not coming home. Don't cry little baby, go to sleep. When you wake up you won't feel a thing. You will be in a better place. You will be with the angels anove, you will be with God. Shhhh.... Don't cry, go to sleep. When you wake up, you will see. You will see beautiful white clouds, and little babies. Little babies...like the one in seat 42. You will have wings when you wake up. You will be my little angel. Author Unknown Added Jan 19 |
| Submitted Tributes |
| We'll Go Forward From This Moment An Address to the Terrorists Published: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 It's my job to have something to say. They pay me to tease shades of meaning from social and cultural issues, to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering. You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard. What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, know that you failed. Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned it. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together. Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, cultural, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though--peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to believers in a just and loving God. Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals. In pain. Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning, and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of its ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, indeed, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before. But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice. I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future. In days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined. There is steel beneath this velvet. You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by those who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans we will rise in defense of all that we cherish. Still, I keep wondering what it was you hoped to teach us. It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what we're about. You don't know what you just started. But you're about to learn. Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Hearld Added Jan 24 |
| Did you write a poem, letter, or just a few words after you found out what had happened on that horrible day? If so, email it to me and I'll post it. |
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| In So Little Time, So Much Has Changed One hour our lives go on the usual way, An hour later thousands are slained. The devastation that was caused to us, Has made tears fall and lots of fuss. Our nation stands as one today, And pray we all get through this OK. Two planes crashed in to the Twin Towers, This was done by heartless cowards. They didn't care the pain the caused, Because they thought they were doing it for God. These people who did this horrible thing, Didn't care that people lost everything. Parent, loved-ones, and sibling too, Were lost in a crime no one knew. No one knew the world would change, In such a short and horrible way. A terrible thing in such a short time, But America came through to arise. God bless America, for we need hope, We need love and comfort so we can cope. This is land of the free, home of the brave, So we will not turn our heads away, We will get through this and survive, Because America will never die. September 15, 2001 ~*Anne*~ To all those who lost someone and need comfort. God Bless America Land of the Free, And the Home of the Brave. Added March 13 |