Wednesday, September 19, 2001
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Wednesday, September 19, 2001 |
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It just got personal . . . The images that we've seen of last week's events have horrified, stunned and enraged us. Images that my mind is still having trouble accepting as anything other than special effects from a Hollywood movie. The enormity of this is incomprehensible to most of us. Probably more so to those of us who have seen or been in these phenomenal structures. I was lucky enough to have an uncle who was the construction foreman for the North Tower when it was being built. I stood on the rooftop platform, where the television transmitter mast was to be installed, when the top 50 floors of that great tower were nothing more than steel girders. The enormity of the achievement made in erecting those tributes to American engineering and determination simply can not be understated. I'm not sure that I will be able to accept their absence from New York's skyline until I look for myself and see that they're no longer there. I was finally able to confirm that I have no immediate family who were involved in the incident. But I have a friend who lost nine people, family and friends. My deepest sympathies go out to him and his family. As time goes on, I fear that many of us will find that we knew people who didn't survive this calamity. People who know me know that I am capable of great love, patience and understanding. However, political correctness and a propensity for turning the other cheek are not personality faults with which I am burdened. I've long maintained that we put our national [courage] on the shelf many years ago, while we attempted to project to the world the image that we were a "Kinder, Gentler Nation." It's time to take them down from that shelf, dust them off and strap them back on. The sense of security that we as Americans share as we go about our daily lives is not something that I am prepared to relinquish. And if we have to lower ourselves to some jackal's level for a period of time to ensure that future safety, I am prepared to admit that I can be reduced to a rage-blinded animal to accomplish the task. Bernie Ortmann Peachtree City
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