September 11, 2001 (9-11)

HALLOWED GROUND

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
-Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863

Since the horrific event of September 11,
the world has been mesmerized by televised images of buildings exploding and falling.
I, too, found it difficult to do anything else but watch.
But for some reason, there is one image that has not been shaken from my mind --
the hole in the ground in rural Pennsylvania,
where the remains of United Flight 93, the 45 passengers and crew aboard lie.

Not far from this very site,
138 years ago,
Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address to honor the brave men who fought and died to save the Union:

"We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live."

The passengers of Flight 93 had gotten information from the ground that the terrorists were using planes as bombs,
and the passengers attacked the hijackers who were wielding knives and threatening to blow up the plane.
Faced with their own impending doom, the passengers courageously overpowered the hijackers,
but they were too late to take control of the airplane.
Had the hijackers succeeded in their mission,
a building in Washington, D.C. surely would have been struck.

These brave women and men saved countless lives.
It is believed that the building targeted was either the White House or the Capitol Building.
So a symbol of liberty was also spared.

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

It is hard to imagine what one would have done in the same situation.
What weapon could I find in my seat to defend myself from trained hijackers?
Could I muster the courage to fight back?
Could I draw upon whatever strengths of persuasion I have to rally others to help?

"...from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

I don't know if I would have had the strength to save a plane.
Would I have been too cautious?
Would I have forgotten how to be brave?

But it is worth noting that those on United Flight 93 were not soldiers,
nor statesmen,
just Americans.
Without anyone to lead them, they led themselves,
and without anyone to tell them what had to be done, they did it.

The Gettysburg Address is a very short speech but its message -
that men's accomplishments are written in their actions, not in the flowery words of those who might praise or damn them --
is a message we should all remember as we live our lives.

We may not be soldiers or statesmen, but we have lives to live and parts to play.
We can conduct ourselves with honor
or
behave in a manner that merits disgrace.

There is in Pennsylvania, a land enriched with the blood of heroes who never put on a uniform.
May we all live and die with such honor.