Tim Walsh
ArboristSite Member
”At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth in their military chests; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in the trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838
September Eleven, in the Year of Our Lord, Two Thousand and One. This event, this view of Armageddon that has been wrought upon our shores has sobered me and hurt me to the marrow of my soul as no other event has in my life. Like most Americans, I have grieved, wept and railed in righteous anger over the events of this week. I have been uplifted by the demonstration of the TRUE AMERICAN SPIRIT that is literally digging through the rubble bare handed in the hope that even one more life may be lifted from the wreckage.
The American Revolution, The War Between the States, and World War Two are but a few events in the life and history of this nation’s people that helped to hammer our character, spirit and resolve into that which we treasure as being uniquely American. The American Revolution granted us our independence. The War Between the States met the test as to whether this nation or any nation divided could long endure. World War Two united the nation in a grim struggle to the death against tyranny and evil the likes of which threatened the very stability of the world order. Boy Scouts went to war against the Hitler Youth and proved that democracy could conquer fanaticism.
Is this the Pearl Harbor of our generation? Yes and no. Yes because for us now, September 11, 2001 represents every much a loss of this generation’s innocence, as December 7, 1941 meant to our parents and grandparents. In both Days of Infamy, we have been shaken to the absolute core of our beliefs in that “it couldn’t happen here!” and that “they don’t have the ability or resolve to do this to us” and “we are prepared and able to deal with all threats to our security”.
In both Days of Infamy, an attack by belligerents hostile to everything we stand for reduced seemingly invulnerable symbols of our strength, power and prestige in the world to smoking ruins and rubble destroying the lives of innocent loved ones in the most violent and despicable manner imaginable. Watching television footage of crowds fleeing the collapsing towers, I couldn’t help but think that I was watching the eruption of a volcano. The billowing clouds of gray dust had every appearance of Mount St. Helens. Views of the rubble and crushed and burned vehicles, coated in thick clouds of choking concrete dust have every appearance of the aftermath of the eruption of a dangerous volcano.
Is this like Pearl Harbor? No. Pearl Harbor was primarily a military strike by one nation against ours with the objective of disabling our naval forces before they could be deployed against Imperial Japan. Through the smoke and fire, devastation and loss of life we never had any doubt as to “who they were”, “where they were” and what we had to do to “go get them”. We had a long, bitter, bloody war ahead of us, whose fighting fell in large part to young Marines, with nothing more than an M-1, grenades and a tattered and filthy set of dungarees to defend our Freedom on far away and now all but forgotten islands with strange-sounding names like Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Is this like Pearl Harbor? It may be if these attacks truly awaken a Sleeping Giant as Yamamoto feared the attack on Pearl Harbor had done.
I believed Winston Churchill can give us guidance as to how a nation can stand up to evil and tyranny.
“Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all of the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills: we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old.”
Winston Churchill’s Address to the House of Commons on June 4, 1940
We are faced by a faceless enemy who has no country, no flag, no uniform and no standing army. I believe that we must be prepared as a nation to meet this act of war. The path to peace and victory is not as clear in this war as it was in World War Two. We must never forget the cost of World War Two: 50 million dead and most of Europe and Japan laid to waste and rubble indistinguishable from the wreckage in New York and Washington D.C. We must not embark upon this Crusade with nothing less than a total commitment of our priorities, resources and National Will. We will not be fighting World War Two over again, but we are embarking upon the beginning of World War Three. This War may be fought as fully with means other than bullets and bombs, but make no mistake, we are at war.
We must never forget that our enemies have fired the opening shot. We do not know and should not think for a moment that they are finished with their assault upon our lives and our property.
Can we win this war? It won’t be short, it won’t be cheap and it won’t be won without further loss of American lives. Can we win this war? We can if we set a clear goal of our mission and never lose heart or sight of our objective, regardless of the outcome of the battles yet to come. May God have mercy on the souls of those about to meet our wrath.
9-14-01
Donald F. Blair
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838
September Eleven, in the Year of Our Lord, Two Thousand and One. This event, this view of Armageddon that has been wrought upon our shores has sobered me and hurt me to the marrow of my soul as no other event has in my life. Like most Americans, I have grieved, wept and railed in righteous anger over the events of this week. I have been uplifted by the demonstration of the TRUE AMERICAN SPIRIT that is literally digging through the rubble bare handed in the hope that even one more life may be lifted from the wreckage.
The American Revolution, The War Between the States, and World War Two are but a few events in the life and history of this nation’s people that helped to hammer our character, spirit and resolve into that which we treasure as being uniquely American. The American Revolution granted us our independence. The War Between the States met the test as to whether this nation or any nation divided could long endure. World War Two united the nation in a grim struggle to the death against tyranny and evil the likes of which threatened the very stability of the world order. Boy Scouts went to war against the Hitler Youth and proved that democracy could conquer fanaticism.
Is this the Pearl Harbor of our generation? Yes and no. Yes because for us now, September 11, 2001 represents every much a loss of this generation’s innocence, as December 7, 1941 meant to our parents and grandparents. In both Days of Infamy, we have been shaken to the absolute core of our beliefs in that “it couldn’t happen here!” and that “they don’t have the ability or resolve to do this to us” and “we are prepared and able to deal with all threats to our security”.
In both Days of Infamy, an attack by belligerents hostile to everything we stand for reduced seemingly invulnerable symbols of our strength, power and prestige in the world to smoking ruins and rubble destroying the lives of innocent loved ones in the most violent and despicable manner imaginable. Watching television footage of crowds fleeing the collapsing towers, I couldn’t help but think that I was watching the eruption of a volcano. The billowing clouds of gray dust had every appearance of Mount St. Helens. Views of the rubble and crushed and burned vehicles, coated in thick clouds of choking concrete dust have every appearance of the aftermath of the eruption of a dangerous volcano.
Is this like Pearl Harbor? No. Pearl Harbor was primarily a military strike by one nation against ours with the objective of disabling our naval forces before they could be deployed against Imperial Japan. Through the smoke and fire, devastation and loss of life we never had any doubt as to “who they were”, “where they were” and what we had to do to “go get them”. We had a long, bitter, bloody war ahead of us, whose fighting fell in large part to young Marines, with nothing more than an M-1, grenades and a tattered and filthy set of dungarees to defend our Freedom on far away and now all but forgotten islands with strange-sounding names like Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Is this like Pearl Harbor? It may be if these attacks truly awaken a Sleeping Giant as Yamamoto feared the attack on Pearl Harbor had done.
I believed Winston Churchill can give us guidance as to how a nation can stand up to evil and tyranny.
“Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all of the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills: we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old.”
Winston Churchill’s Address to the House of Commons on June 4, 1940
We are faced by a faceless enemy who has no country, no flag, no uniform and no standing army. I believe that we must be prepared as a nation to meet this act of war. The path to peace and victory is not as clear in this war as it was in World War Two. We must never forget the cost of World War Two: 50 million dead and most of Europe and Japan laid to waste and rubble indistinguishable from the wreckage in New York and Washington D.C. We must not embark upon this Crusade with nothing less than a total commitment of our priorities, resources and National Will. We will not be fighting World War Two over again, but we are embarking upon the beginning of World War Three. This War may be fought as fully with means other than bullets and bombs, but make no mistake, we are at war.
We must never forget that our enemies have fired the opening shot. We do not know and should not think for a moment that they are finished with their assault upon our lives and our property.
Can we win this war? It won’t be short, it won’t be cheap and it won’t be won without further loss of American lives. Can we win this war? We can if we set a clear goal of our mission and never lose heart or sight of our objective, regardless of the outcome of the battles yet to come. May God have mercy on the souls of those about to meet our wrath.
9-14-01
Donald F. Blair
