Every U down in Uville liked U.S. a lot,
But the Binch, who lived Far East of Uville, did not.
The Binch hated U.S! the whole U.S. way!
Now don't ask me why, for nobody can say,
It could be his turban was screwed on too tight.
Or the sun from the desert had beaten too bright
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.
But, Whatever the reason, his heart or his turban,
He stood facing Uville, the part that was urban.
"They're doing their business," he snarled from his perch.
"They're raising their families! They're going to church!
They're leading the world, and their empire is thriving,
I MUST keep the S's and U's from surviving!"
Tomorrow, he knew, all the U's and the S's,
Would put on their pants and their shirts and their dresses,
They'd go to their offices, playgrounds and schools,
And abide by their U and S values and rules,
And then they'd do something he liked least of all,
Every U down in Uville, the tall and the small,
Would stand all united, each U and each S,
And they'd sing Uville's anthem, "God bless us! God bless!"
All around their Twin Towers of Uville, they'd stand,
and their voices would drown every sound in the land.
"I must stop that singing," Binch said with a smirk,
And he had an idea--an idea that might work!
The Binch stole some U airplanes in U morning hours,
And crashed them right into the Uville Twin Towers.
"They'll wake to disaster!" he snickered, so sour,
"And how can they sing when they can't find a tower?"
The Binch cocked his ear as they woke from their sleeping,
All set to enjoy their U-wailing and weeping,
Instead he heard something that started quite low,
And it built up quite slow, but it started to grow--
And the Binch heard the most unpredictable thing...
And he couldn't believe it--they started to sing!
He stared down at Uville, not trusting his eyes,
What he saw was a shocking, disgusting surprise!
Every U down in Uville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any towers at all!
He HADN'T stopped Uville from singing! It sung!
For down deep in the hearts of the old and the young,
Those Twin Towers were standing, called Hope and called Pride,
And you can't smash the towers we hold deep inside.
So we circle the sites where our heroes did fall,
With a hand in each hand of the tall and the small,
And we mourn for our losses while knowing we'll cope,
For we still have inside that U-Pride and U-Hope.
For America means a bit more than tall towers,
It means more than wealth or political powers,
It's more than our enemies ever could guess,
So may God bless America! Bless us! God bless!
This will not be a video-game war. We need to pause here
a moment and make sure we all understand. It won't be a
war where combat is limited to remote-control weapons
and distant targets. It won't be a war where battle
footage consists solely of some grainy image of a target
growing larger in the cross hairs, then disappearing in
a silent flash. You've heard what the grim-faced men on
television keep saying. Ground troops. Infantry. That
means American soldiers in harm's way. This will not be
a war where all the dying is done on the other side. I'm
not suggesting it's a war we shouldn't fight. Not at
all. I saw those planes plow into the side of the World
Trade Center towers just like you did. And just like
you, I find myself adrift in a world that seems suddenly
unfamiliar, abruptly unsafe. I feel violated. And I
feel, too, that the time has come when civilized people
have to make a stand, when good must take the fight to
evil. Yet even as I say that, I'm struck by how very
easy it is for me to say. I am, after all, just a guy
sitting at a desk. I won't be taking the fight to
anybody. Others will be doing it on my behalf. Unless
you're a member of the nation's armed forces -- and God
bless you if you are -- the same is true of you. We've
made it clear that we're willing to bear any cost to
extract retribution from those who have hurt us so
grievously. But make no mistake: The cost of that will
not measured primarily in terms of money -- or even
sacrifice. Human life is the currency of war. We need to
be sure we understand that. We need to gird ourselves
for it. `WAR IS HELL' Some farm boy from Kansas, some
dimpled mother from Arizona, some dutiful son from
Maine, is going to return home stuffed inside a zippered
bag. We are about to see what we have not seen for a
generation. We are about to understand the revulsion of
our forebears. As William Tecumseh Sherman once famously
said: ``It is only those who have never fired a shot nor
heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry
aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is
hell.'' We haven't been to hell lately. And we have
changed dramatically in the years since our last visit,
become a people defined in part by a quixotic belief in
the perfectibility of the human condition. We litigate
when our feelings are hurt or the world unfair, impose
zero tolerance laws to tidy up the loose ends and errant
inconsistencies of daily life. Self-improvement is our
mantra. We work to become our best selves, to find
spiritual enlightenment, to nurture the inner child. We
seek order. We hate mess. And war is nothing but.
Especially this war. It won't be like World War II,
where men died with grotesque abandon, their blood
staining the sand of distant beaches. But neither is it
likely to be like Desert Storm, a hundred hours of
combat and 760 casualties. That's not to denigrate the
sacrifices made by those who fought in the Persian Gulf.
The point is only that this will be something different,
something profoundly new. This, the president tells us,
will be ``sweeping'' and ``sustained.'' ``You will be
asked for your patience,'' he said, ``for the conflict
will not be short.'' STATELESS ENEMY We fight against a
stateless enemy whose rules are not like ours, an enemy
for whom suicide is glory and the mass murder of
innocent noncombatants a legitimate tactic. We must
understand this and muster the resolve the task demands.
And we will. After all, what other choice do we have?
What other option does our ancestry allow? Colin Powell
said it Wednesday: ``We're Americans; we don't walk
around terrified.'' Our enemies don't expect us to
understand that this conflict won't be just another
video game, don't expect us to have the stomach for the
sort of up-close and personal war that looms. They
sought to cow us with a single murderous strike.
Instead, they did the opposite. They yanked us out of
idyll and reverie, forced us to confront the demands of
our common heritage. God help them. They made us
remember who we are.
Djay2Tx Mistress of Veils
Posts: 232
(9/20/01 8:46 am) Reply
Re: Found in my in box
Thanks Kathy - I'm still numb and stunned more than a week has gone by and the images are crystal clear. This morning I heard on ABC News that these #(%*#&@*&%&)* criminals may have (and likely did) profit from their actions. By placing what are called "puts" on the stock market commodities which are contracts for options to be dealt on a specific DAY. They naturally chose Sept. 12, one day after their planned attack. They chose the airlines, brokers and companies in WTC that they had selected to use and target. When the markets reopened, they profited from stock options they made prior to the attacks !!!! Investigations are underway to track the source and brokerage houses that made the "puts". But how absolutely frightening to think not only did they kill the entire population of many cities in America, they've caused an economic upheivel with businesses closing in lower Manhattan, airlines closing and laying off workers, BUT NOW, now they've profited from their own evil. If that comes to pass, there better be some changes in the US commodities and stock exchange made available to foreigh markets. Insider trading performed by Americans means jailtime, fines and the reversal of the transactions. I'm with the news anchor who said surely we can STOP payment on the contracts. But it may be too late, they may have had time to move the money so many times since Monday's NYSE re-opened that they can't track the true villan. The blinds we once lived behind and naive attitude we once had, is gone.
America is dropping the gloves.
My blood pressure is rising and I'm very anxious to hear more on this subject and others as President Bush speaks tonight.
Re: Found in my in box
The worst part is they are opposed to our capitalism, yet without our capitalism, they wouldn't have been able to do this. It is appalling, but also amazing how fast they are finding out. I heard about this Tuesday afternoon so they may have been able to stop it. No telling
"...I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country...Victory or Death."
William Barret Travis
On Monday we thought that we were secure
On Tuesday we learned better
On Monday we were talking about heroes as being athletes
On Tuesday we relearned who our heroes are
On Monday we were irritated that our rebate checks had not arrived
On Tuesday we gave money away to people we had never met
On Monday there were people fighting against praying in schools
On Tuesday you would have been hard pressed to find a school where someone was not praying
On Monday people argued with their kids about picking up their room
On Tuesday the same people could not get home fast enough to hug their kids
On Monday people were upset that they had to wait 6 minutes in a fast food drive through line
On Tuesday people didn't care about waiting up to 6 hours to give blood for the dying
On Monday we waved our flags signifying our cultural diversity
On Tuesday we waved only the American flag
On Monday there were people trying to separate each other by race, sex, color and creed
On Tuesday they were all holding hands
On Monday we were men or women, black or white, old or young, rich or poor, gay or straight, Christian or non-Christian.
On Tuesday we were Americans
On Monday politicians argued about budget surpluses
On Tuesday grief stricken they sang 'God Bless America'
On Monday the President was going to Florida to read to children
On Tuesday he returned to Washington to protect our children
On Monday we had families
On Tuesday we had orphans
On Monday people went to work as usual
On Tuesday they died
On Monday people were fighting the 10 commandments on government property
On Tuesday the same people all said 'God help us all' while thinking 'Thou shall not kill'
It is sadly ironic how it takes horrific events to place things into perspective, but it has. The lessons learned this week, the things we have taken for granted, the things that have been forgotten or overlooked, hopefully will never be forgotten again.
For The Record
BY HARRIET BAROVICK, ELLIN MARTENS, VICKY RAINERT, SORA SONG
6,333 People reported missing in the World Trade Center rubble as of Sept. 22
2,593 Estimated number of foreign citizens from 65 countries missing or dead
1,968 Total number of people killed in the world's 10 worst terrorist attacks before Sept. 11
7,000 FBI agents and support personnel involved in the investigation into the terrorist attacks--the largest FBI
investigation ever
5,131 Air Force National Guard members and reservists called to active duty
$4 billion Estimated benefits the life-insurance industry expects to pay out because of the attacks
$151,635 Federal money given to each family of a police officer, a fire fighter or an EMT who died in the Trade Center collapse
$15,000 Value of the life-insurance policy of a kitchen worker at Windows on the World
44 Age of suspected terrorist ringleader Osama bin Laden
47 Life expectancy of an Afghan citizen
43% Drop in stock value last Monday of UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines
11% Rise in value of shares of handgun maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. the same day
3,695,000 Afghan refugees as of Sept. 10, 2001
15,000 Number of Afghans who crossed the border into Pakistan the week after Sept. 11
15,000 Number of copies in the first printing of Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War (Simon & Schuster), released Sept. 11
100,000 Copies ordered for the second printing after the book topped Amazon's best-seller list on Sept. 11
1.2 million Cubic yards of earth and rock excavated to build the World Trade Center
90,937 Tons of debris removed from the World Trade Center site as of Sept. 22, 2001
256 Body parts recovered from the rubble15 Ladder trucks, fire engines and support vehicles recovered
$25 million Reward for Osama bin Laden's capture$800 Per capita GDP of Afghanistan
300,000 Pledges made during the first 15 min. of the Tribute to Heroes telethon
16,000 Approximate number of tickets sold in 15 min. for Madonna's first London concert
79,390 Airline workers who were laid off after the terrorist attacks
$15 billion Aid package passed by Congress to bail out the airlines
Sources: Office of the Mayor, Reuters, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, NYT, CNN, NYT (2), TIME, CIA, AP, Reuters, United Nations (2), AP (2), Twin Towers Bldg. Proj., Office of the Mayor, NYT (2), U.S. State Dept., CIA, Tribute to Heroes, Press Assoc., AP, NYT
We were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt flying over the North Atlantic and I was in my crew rest seat taking my scheduled rest break. All of a sudden the curtains parted violently and I was told to go to the cockpit, right now, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed the crew had one of those "All Business" looks on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. I quickly read the message and realized the importance of it. The message was from Atlanta, addressed to our flight, and simply said, "All airways over the Continental US are closed. Land ASAP at the nearest airport, advise your destination."
Now, when a dispatcher tells you to land immediately without suggesting which airport, one can assume that the dispatcher has reluctantly given up control of the flight to the captain. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. It was quickly decided that the nearest airport was 400 miles away, behind our right shoulder, in Gander, on the island of New Foundland.
A quick request was made to the Canadian traffic controller and a right turn, directly to Gander, was approved immediately. We found out later why there was no hesitation by the Canadian controller approving our request. We, the in-flight crew, were told to get the airplane ready for an immediate landing. While this was going on another message arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the New York area. We briefed the in-flight crew about going to Gander and we went about our business 'closing down' the airplane for a landing. A few minutes later I went back to the cockpit to find out that some airplanes had been hijacked and were being flown into buildings all over the US. We decided to make an announcement and LIE to the passengers for the time being. We told them that an instrument problem had arisen on the airplane and that we needed to land at Gander, to have it checked. We promised to give more information after landing in Gander. There were many unhappy passengers but that is par for the course.
We landed in Gander about 40 minutes after the start of this episode. There were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the world. After we parked on the ramp the captain made the following announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these airplanes around us have the same instrument problem as we have. But the reality is that we are here for a good reason." Then he went on to explain the little bit we knew about the situation in the US. There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. Local time at Gander was 12:30 pm. (11:00 AM EST)
Gander control told us to stay put. No one was allowed to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to come near the aircrafts. Only a car from the airport police would come around once in a while, look us over and go on to the next airplane. In the next hour or so all the airways over the North Atlantic were vacated and Gander alone ended up with 53 airplanes from all over the world, out of which 27 were flying US flags.
We were told that each and every plane was to be offloaded, one at a time, with the foreign carriers given the priority. We were No.14 in the US category. We were further told that we would be given a tentative time to deplane at 6 pm. Meanwhile bits of news started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the first time we learned that airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon in DC.
People were trying to use their cell phones but were unable to connect due to a different cell system in Canada. Some did get through but were only able to get to the Canadian operator who would tell them that the lines to the US were either blocked or jammed and to try again. Some time late in the evening the news filtered to us that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a crash.
Now the passengers were totally bewildered and emotionally exhausted but stayed calm as we kept reminding them to look around to see that we were not the only ones in this predicament. There were 52 other planes with people on them in the same situation. We also told them that the Canadian Government was in charge and we were at their mercy. True to their word, at 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our turn to deplane would come at 11 AM, the next morning. That took the last wind out of the passengers and they simply resigned and accepted this news without much noise and really started to get into a mode of spending the night on the airplane.
Gander had promised us any and all medical attention if needed; medicine, water, and lavatory servicing. And they were true to their word.
Fortunately we had no medical situation during the night. We did have a young lady who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of her. The night passed without any further complications on our airplane despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th we were told to get ready to leave the aircraft.
A convoy of school buses showed up at the side of the airplane, the stairway was hooked up and the passengers were taken to the terminal for "processing" We, the crew, were taken to the same terminal but were told to go to a different section, where we were processed through Immigration and customs and then had to register with the Red Cross. After that we were isolated from our passengers and were taken in a caravan of vans to a very small hotel in the town of Gander. We had no idea where our passengers were going.
The town of Gander has a population of 10,400 people. Red Cross told us that they were going to process about 10,500 passengers from all the airplanes that were forced into Gander. We were told to just relax at the hotel and wait for a call to go back to the airport, but not to expect that call for a while. We found out the total scope of the terror back home only after getting to our hotel and turning on the TV, 24 hours after it all started. Meanwhile we enjoyed ourselves going around town discovering things and enjoying the hospitality. The people were so friendly and they just knew that we were the "Plane people". We all had a great time until we got that call, 2 days later, on the 14th at 7 AM. We made it to the airport by 8:30 AM and left for Atlanta at 12:30 PM arriving in Atlanta at about 4:30 PM. (Gander is 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of EST, yes!, 1 hour and 30 minutes.) But that's not what I wanted to tell you. What passengers told us was so uplifting and incredible and the timing couldn't have been better.
We found out that Gander and the surrounding small communities, within a 75 Kilometer radius, had closed all the high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large gathering places. They converted all these facilities to a mass lodging area. Some had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up. ALL the high school students HAD to volunteer taking care of the "GUESTS".
Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, about 45 Kilometers from Gander. There they were put in a high school. If any women wanted to be in a women only facility, that was arranged. Families were kept together. All the elderly passengers were given no choice and were taken to private homes. Remember that young pregnant lady, she was put up in a private home right across the street from a 24 hour Urgent Care type facility. There were DDS on call and they had both male and female nurses available and stayed with the crowd for the duration. Phone calls and emails to US and Europe were available for every one once a day.
During the days the passengers were given a choice of "Excursion" trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and harbors. Some went to see the local forests. Local bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the guests. Food was prepared by all the residents and brought to the school for those who elected to stay put. Others were driven to the eatery of their choice and fed. They were given tokens to go to the local Laundromat to wash their clothes, since their luggage was still on the aircraft.
In other words every single need was met for those unfortunate travelers. Passengers were crying while telling us these stories. After all that, they were delivered to the airport right on time and without a single one missing or late. All because the local Red Cross had all the information about the goings on back at Gander and knew which group needed to leave for the airport at what time. Absolutely incredible.
When passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise. Everybody knew everybody else by their name. They were swapping stories of their stay, impressing each other with who had the better time. It was mind boggling. Our flight back to Atlanta looked like a party flight. We simply stayed out of their way. The passengers had totally bonded and they were calling each other by their first names, exchanging phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses. And then a strange thing happened. One of our business class passengers approached me and asked if he could speak over the PA to his fellow passengers. We never, never, allow that. But something told me to get out of his way. I said "of course". The gentleman picked up the PA and reminded everyone about what they had just gone through in the last few days. He reminded them of the hospitality they had received at the hands of total strangers. He further stated that he would like to do something in return for the good folks of the town of Lewisporte. He said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 (our flight number). The purpose of the trust fund is to provide a scholarship for high school student(s) of Lewisporte to help them go to college. He asked for donations of any amount from his fellow travelers. When the paper with donations got back to us with the amounts, names, phone numbers and addresses, it totaled to $14.5K or about $20K Canadian. The gentleman who started all this turned out to be an MD from Virginia. He promised to match the donations and to start the administrative work on the scholarship.
He also said that he would forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask them to donate as well.
Why, all of this? Just because some people in far away places were kind to some strangers, who happened to literally drop in among them? WHY NOT?
Thanks Kathy
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