A White Rose for Remembrance

I've been watching television and news personalities today discussing the things that they remember about the horrifying events which took place on September 11, 2001, and I thought about what I was doing when our country was attacked. My daughter and I were home. She happened to be watching the morning news and told me that an airplane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. It did not occur to me at that point that it was anything other than an accident, and I remember thinking how horrible it would have been for the people on the plane to be able to look out of the window of the plane and to see that they were going to fly right into that huge tall building. We watched the intermittent coverage of the "accident" on national morning news and were truly horrified when the second plane hit the other tower. The graphic pictures of that second plane crashing into the tower made me feel ill. The realization that it was no accident was frightening. How could human beings do such things to other human beings?

So many people with families and lives, destroyed by hate. It is still hard for me to understand years later how people can hate so much that they are willing to kill.

The thing that I've been struck by today in watching the news clips of the events of Sept. 11, is the goodness and sacrifice of so many people who saw the need for help and selflessly risked themselves to help others. What a contrast! In this single event, we see both the worst of mankind and the best. We saw the hate which prompted the acts, and then we saw the kindness and love of those heroes who tried to comfort and to rescue the victims. It warms my heart and soul to know that the majority of Americans are kind and compassionate and caring.

This is a white rose of honor and remembrance for those who died and also for those who gave of themselves to try to save those that they could. God Bless You All and God Bless America.