Stay Strong

It is the butterflies. The nervousness. The apprehension, and oftentimes, the fear. Nobody likes uncomfortable or unsettling situations. But every now and then, uncontrollable circumstances test every one of us. It is at these moments, and these moments alone, that true character of a person or society is tested.

Such is the case as we mark the five year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Everyone remembers where they were or what they were doing on that infamous day. I specifically remember evacuating downtown Atlanta with businessmen, students, and tourists creating a sea of paranoid people. There were rumors flying around that Atlanta was a potential target (they actually ran that rumor on the crawl on CNN - very irresponsible). One remarkable thing that still sticks out into my mind is that I, along with everyone else, had my eyes on the buildings above me for the entire duration of the exodus. On that beautiful morning, we all expected a 747 to take our skyline and some of our citizens. The fear was tangible, the attitude was hopelessness, and I will never forget that feeling for the rest of my life.

And so it was that for weeks we kept our eyes to the skies. Our national psyche was deeply affected in a negative way, but we drove on. We gave blood. We poured billions into charities. We still went to the malls. Our stock market re-opened days later. We packed baseball and football stadiums. Many joined the armed forces. We refused to let the facists win. But it was not because we were not scared. We all still instinctively glanced at our skyline everytime we heard a plane overhead - expecting the worst.

It is often understood that courage is the absence of fear. That could not be further from the truth. True courage is demonstrated by doing what one knows to be right in spite of understood dangers and inherent fear. It is very well documented that the passengers of United 93 were apprehensive before their heroic revolt, but they did what had to be done, and that is what makes their story so impressive.

Now, we must renew our resolve to carry on with the mission started over Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It is our responsibility to both our future generations and to the oppressed peoples of the world to stand up to the Islamic-Facist movement and send its followers the message clearly expressed by General Pace today: "Not on our watch."

This mission will be long and trying. It will require sacrifices - some large, and some small, but all necessary. Most of us will not have to choose between being burned alive or jumping 100 stories to our death. Nor will most of us have to choose to either allow our airplane to be used as a missile or overrun knife-wielding terrorists and run the bird into the ground. We will have to give up some privacy at an airport. Maybe we will have to wait a little longer to get into a sporting event. We will all have to deal with the anguish and mental fatigue of a long war. We should consider these sacrifices miniscule in comparison to the ones made by our soldiers everyday. And the ones made by so many just five years ago. Above all, we must commit ourselves whole-heartedly to what must be done.

So maybe it isn't the butterflies, nervousness, apprehension or fear that defines a situation. It's how we deal with it. And how we continue to deal with it.


God bless the civilian heroes of that horrific day, our uniformed heroes of today, and above all - the cause of Freedom.