Eight-Years Gone

Those iconic towers in lower Manhattan in 1993, from the top of the Empire State Building at sunset.
Statue of Liberty barely visible in center of picture.

We knew that day eight years ago that things would never be the same again. In those few short moments of horror and disbelief we knew that what we had assumed since the end of World War II was gone. Our American self-assurance was challenged and we responded. Some of it good; some not so good; and some may one day be found to be ways that hurt us more than we were hurt. Yes, the world is different.

Skyline of lower Manhattan from Liberty Island, 1987.

I was struck in the picture above from Liberty Island, that the New York harbor haze made an interesting contrast in the picture, perhaps metaphorically. Over there is what isn't anymore. The Towers represent September 10, 2001 and before. We stand here in the still green grass of liberty and look back. We wonder and ponder and dream.

We can't go back. The world is different. We are no longer as separated from the rest of the world as we used to be. Even North Korea has talked about throwing missiles our way. We have gone to war twice in these eight years- Afghanistan and Iraq. Neither has turned out the way we hoped and Afghanistan is looking more troubling than we would like. Our nation is more divided than we have been since those turbulent 60s, both the 1860s and 1960s. We refuse to let our children watch the President of the United States on TV. THAT is division unlike we have seen in a very, very long time.

Yet- YET- we elected our first African-American President. We are surviving a difficult economic recession. We are still free. The liberals will say that freedom is in spite of Bush; the conservatives say it is in spite of Obama. Neither are right!! We are free because of Bush and Obama and our basic American freedoms that we have not lost. In difficult times as we have faced over the past 8 years those freedoms can get a little tattered around the edges. It is not the first time that our freedoms got shaky. They did in the Civil War when Lincoln suspended habeus corpus. They did in WW II when we put our own citizens of Japanese origin into internment camps. They did in the 1960s when we fought each other over the length of hair and whether you were born before or after 1946.

But that grass on Liberty Island is still green. It is not because of Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives. It is green because of you and me- the great American people. We may be cynical at times, wishing a pox on both of the extremes, wanting to be left alone to enjoy our liberties. We may be frustrated at times that things aren't moving as fast in some directions- and too fast in others. We are still proud that we elected an African-American president, even if we don't agree with everything he says, does, or wants. We want him to succeed as president, for if he fails- so do we, and it takes a lot of work to rebuild.

Overall we have not forgotten that we are Americans. Of that we are proud. We are proud that we can still help the least and the lost. In many ways we still believe the words on that Statue barely visible in the top picture. All of us except Native Americans have benefited from the liberty and freedom presented in those words...

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

—Emma Lazarus, 1883