I can only imagine the terror felt by those who where there..
Seeing the greatness of architecture fall.
Knowing that so many fell with the rubble...
Numbed by the sight and thought...
Fearful of what else might come...

This fear, born at our birth and carried inside us.
Escaping in past moments of terror on a much
more personal level...The tears, anguish, sobs
and screams...Echoing in our ears...

I wonder how it was during all of those great
wars of the past...When tens of thousands
died as terror rained down upon them...
Firemen, like our own...braving the elements
trying desperately to stop the burning, to
save innocent lives....

Sixty years later....so terrible and horrible
a taste of reality...One that our fathers felt,
that our mothers cringed at and wept tears
of sadness, pain, loss, loneliness....

Yet, through both that war and this tragedy...
From the ashes has risen an ever strengthening
nation...a democracy built upon one creed,
one thought....That all men are created
equal and that all should have the freedom to
live their own lives...to choose those that
governed and to wake each new day...

Wake from the comfort of their bed, not in fear,
but in the comfort of the umbrella this nation
has provided over us.....

May we never forget that war or this tragedy of
a year ago....May we always have peace
and democracy....For too many of our own lives
have been given in unselfish sacrifice to ensure
we have just that.....

Thank you to all who have stood firm behind us,
to all who have stood beside us and to all of us
that remain strong and resolved to keep this
nation strong....that they may never have
died in vain...