THE LADY

I wonder what she thought
As she stood there, strong and tall.
She couldn't turn away,
She was forced to watch it all.

Did she long to offer comfort
As her country bled?
With her arm forever frozen
High above her head.

She could not shield her eyes
She could not hide her face
She just stared across the water
Keeping Freedom's place.

The smell of smoke and terror
Somehow reduced her size
So small within the harbor
But still we recognized...

How dignified and beautiful
On a day so many died
I wonder what she thought,
And I know she must have cried.
---------------------------------------------------

One

As the soot and dirt and ash rained down,
We became one color.

As we carried each other down the
stairs of the burning building,
We became one class.

As we lit candles of waiting and hope,
We became one generation.

As the firefighters and police officers
fought their way into the inferno,
We became one gender.

As we fell to our knees
in prayer for strength,
We became one faith.

As we whispered or shouted
words of encouragement,
We spoke one language.

As we gave our blood in lines a mile long,
We became one body.

As we mourned together the great loss,
We became one family.

As we cried tears of grief and loss,
We became one soul.

As we retell with pride of
the sacrifice of heroes,
We become one people.

We are:
One color
One class
One generation
One gender
One faith
One language
One body
One family
One soul
One people

We are The Power of One.
We are United.
We are America.



This candle was lit on the 11th of September, 2001.
Please pass it on to your friends & family so that it
may shine all across America.

"A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle,
it gains a greater brilliance."


Have fun, enjoy this long weekend,
BUT PLEASE most of
REMEMBER
why we celebrate this Holiday

ALEXANDER W. PURDUE, Colonel, USAF

Chief Trial Attorney

Dear friends and fellow Americans

14 September, 2001

  Like everyone else in this great country, I am reeling from last week's attack on our sovereignty. But unlike some, I am not reeling from surprise.

As a career soldier and a student and teacher of military history, I have a different perspective and I think you should hear it.  This war will be won or lost by the American citizens, not diplomats, politicians or soldiers.

  Let me briefly explain.  In spite of what the media, and even our own government is telling us, this act was not committed by a group of mentally deranged fanatics. To dismiss them as such would be among the gravest of mistakes. A ferocious, intelligent and dedicated adversary committed this attack. Don't take this the wrong way. I don't admire these men and I deplore their tactics, but I respect their capabilities. The many parallels that have been made with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor are apropos. Not only because it was a brilliant sneak attack against a complacent America, but also because we may well be pulling our new adversaries out of caves 30 years after we think this war is over, just like my father's generation had to do with the formidable Japanese in the years following WW II.

  These men hate the United States with all of their being, and we must not underestimate the power of their moral commitment. Napoleon, perhaps the world's greatest combination of soldier and statesman, stated "the moral is to the physical as three is to one." Patton thought the Frenchman underestimated its importance and said moral conviction was five times more important in battle than physical strength. Our enemies are willing – better said anxious -- to give their lives for their cause.  How committed are we America? And for how long?

 In addition to demonstrating great moral conviction, the recent attack demonstrated a mastery of some of the basic fundamentals of warfare taught to most military officers worldwide, namely simplicity, security and surprise. When I first heard rumors that some of these men may have been trained at our own Air War College, it made perfect sense to me.  This was not a random act of violence, and we can expect the same sort of military competence to be displayed in the battle to come. This war will escalate, with a good portion of it happening right here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

  These men will not go easily into the night. They do not fear us. We must not fear them. In spite of our overwhelming conventional strength as the world's only "superpower" (a truly silly term), we are the underdog in this fight. As you listen to the carefully scripted rhetoric designed to prepare us for the march for war, please realize that America is not equipped or seriously trained for the battle ahead. To be certain, our soldiers are much better than the enemy, and we have some excellent "counter-terrorist" organizations, but they are mostly trained for hostage rescues, airfield seizures, or the occasional "body snatch," (which may come in handy). We will be fighting a war of annihilation, because if their early efforts are any indication, our enemy is ready and willing to die to the last man.

  Eradicating the enemy will be costly and time consuming. They have already deployed their forces in as many as 20 countries, and are likely living the lives of everyday citizens. Simply put, our soldiers will be tasked with a search and destroy mission on multiple foreign landscapes, and the public must be patient and supportive until the strategy and tactics can be worked out. For the most part, our military is still in the process of redefining itself and presided over by men and women who grew up with – and were promoted because they excelled in - Cold War doctrine, strategy and tactics. This will not be linear warfare; there will be no clear "centers of gravity" to strike with high technology weapons. Our vast technological edge will certainly be helpful, but it will not be decisive. Perhaps the perfect metaphor for the coming battle was introduced by the terrorists themselves aboard the hijacked aircraft -- this will be a knife fight, and it will be won or lost by the ingenuity and will of citizens and soldiers, not by software or smart bombs. We must also be patient with our military leaders.

  Unlike Americans who are eager to put this messy time behind us, our adversaries have time on their side, and they will use it. They plan to fight a battle of attrition, hoping to drag the battle out until the

American public loses its will to fight. This might be difficult to believe in this euphoric time of flag waving and patriotism, but it is generally acknowledged that America lacks the stomach for a long fight.  We need only look as far back as Vietnam, when North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap (also a military history teacher) defeated the United States of America without ever winning a major tactical battle. American soldiers who marched to war cheered on by flag waving Americans in 1965 were reviled and spat upon less than three years later when they returned. Although we hope that Usama Bin Laden is no Giap, he is certain to understand and employ the concept. We can expect not only large doses of pain like the recent attacks, but also less audacious "sand in the gears" tactics, ranging from livestock infestations to attacks at water supplies and power distribution facilities.

   These attacks are designed to hit us in our "comfort zone" forcing the average American to "pay more and play less" and eventually eroding our resolve. But it can only work if we let it.

  It is clear to me that the will of the American citizenry - you and I - is the center of gravity the enemy has targeted. It will be the fulcrum upon which victory or defeat will turn. He believes us to be soft, impatient, and self-centered. He may be right, but if so, we must change. The Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz, (the most often quoted and least read military theorist in history), says that there is a "remarkable trinity of war" that is composed of the (1) will of the people, (2) the political leadership of the government, and (3) the chance and probability that plays out on the field of battle, in that order. Every American citizen was in the crosshairs of last Tuesday's attack, not just those that were unfortunate enough to be in the World Trade Center or Pentagon. The will of the American people will decide this war.    If we are to win, it will be because we have what it takes to persevere through a few more hits, learn from our mistakes, improvise, and adapt. If we can do that, we will eventually prevail.

 Every one I've talked to in the past few days has shared a common frustration, saying in one form or another "I just wish I could do something!" You are already doing it. Just keep faith in America, and continue to support your President and military, and the outcome is certain.

If we fail to do so, the outcome is equally certain.

God Bless America

Dr. Tony Kern, Lt Col, USAF (Ret)

Former Director of Military History, USAF Academy

AMERICA

Our country is once again called upon to protect freedom.

We've all listened to the radio, read the papers, seen the interviews,
heard the analysts, and watched the terrible scenes in horror and asked, "Why?"

We will probably never know why something like this happens.

Maybe our enemies just want to show us how bad they hate us.

Maybe they think they can get away with something like this.

If so, that's where they are wrong.  Dead wrong.

You will not find cowardice in this country.

What you will find is heroism,
the kind of heroism that cannot be measured.

The passengers on the United Flight 93 sacrificed their own lives
 to save the lives of other Americans.

The policemen, the firemen, neighbors and strangers alike,
sacrificing unafraid to help fellow Americans during this disastrous time
demonstrates the caliber and fiber of the people of this country.

Watching this from afar I’m sure you will agree
that you have experienced two feelings.
The first is helplessness, and the second is pride.

As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn,
and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

Right now we wait. We wait as a whole and we wait for direction.
Be assured that we will arrive, and out of the ashes of
New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania will raise a phoenix. 
A bird is now sharpening its talons and preparing for war.
It's a bird seeking justice and fueled by the love and support
of the greatest nation in the world.

The bird is a Bald Eagle. 

To Osama and the Boys from an American Wife & Mother

Yo,Osama!

Well, the government finally named you as a suspect, so I guess it's fair to talk about you now.  Thought you had us, didn't you? What a laugh!  You did more to unify this country than George Washington.

See, we Americans had gotten sort of distracted.  We worried about things like lockboxes, taxes, and who was committing hanky panky with whom.  We were too stressed to reach out to one another, to sit down and talk with our kids, to call our spouses at work and tell them we loved them.  We were MUCH  too busy to even think about giving blood or going to the hardware store to buy and hang an American flag.

You changed all that, Osama, you and your gang of creeps.  I met my neighbors in the park across the street tonight.  We talked quietly while everybody gathered.  Then we lit our candles and just stood there silently, holding them.  Without anybody saying anything, we walked back to our neighborhood and set them on our doorsteps.  They are still burning.  You will never be able to put them out.

I've had more meaningful conversations with my teenager this week than in the last couple of years combined.  Tonight I was driving her to a friend's house when the voice of Lee Greenwood came over the radio singing "I'm Proud to Be an American." We were stuck in traffic, and normally we would have been snapping at one another. She started singing along softly with the radio.  I joined in. By the second verse we were singing at the top of our voices with the windows rolled down.  People stuck in traffic on either side of us joined in.  By the time we were finally able to move a little, perfect strangers were wiping their eyes, blowing their horns and shouting good wishes to one another.

I hung an American flag on my house yesterday for the first time in my life.  I'd like to get another one, but there are no flags or anything else red, white, or blue left in any store in this town.  My daughter and I did find some white and blue ribbon in the sewing box.  Tomorrow we're going to make a huge blue-and-white bow and fasten it to the front grille of the car. The car's bright red; we think it will look nice.

I called my husband at work today just to tell him I loved him.  I hadn't done that for awhile - too busy, I guess.  It felt wonderful.

We are going to send some money to a fund to help the victims. Tonight at the dinner table we talked about the various charities and tried to decide which one was best. Normally we just eat and run. It was the best dinner table conversation we've had in a long time. We finally decided on a fund that's been set up for the children of the rescue workers who were killed in New York City . We'd never given much thought to appreciating all they do for us before now.

My husband and I are on a waiting list to give blood.  It'll be awhile before our names come up;  there are over 500 people ahead of us. There's been a shortage of blood in this area.  I wouldn't be surprised if the blood donated all across this country eventually saves more people than you killed.  That would be a fitting memorial to those who died.

We're sticking together.  Our politicians are rising to the occasion. Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush never looked half as statesmanlike as they have this week.  Partisan bickering?  What's that?  Half the Congress stood on the steps of the Capitol the other night and sang "God Bless America ."

See, Osama, you underestimated us.  And maybe for too long we've been underestimating ourselves.  This is the greatest, strongest, richest, most beautiful country in the world.  Our firefighters, policemen, EMTs, and people like the ones on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania have reminded us that we're also the bravest and most determined.

You can't destroy us, and you can't stop us.  Because we're coming, Osama. We're gonna find you and the rest of your murderous thugs, and when we do, we're gonna kick your butts all over the face of the earth. You are gonna REGRET the day you messed with AMERICA !

Just thought you oughta know.

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