I’ve just seen how Americans cope with disaster, again. It’s with their hearts and souls. Most of the major TV networks just covered the unveiling of a wall in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. A field where the plane out of Boston on that terrible morning of September 11, 2001 was commandeered by a group of the passengers who voted to have the plane crash there rather than let the plane crash into the United States Capitol.
It was a simple, outdoor service in Shanksville, Pennsylvania to honor the newly erected simple Wall. There was an audience in a field of folding chairs as far as the eye could see, a piano played and a young woman sang hymns we all know. Simple? Well, sort of – you see the speakers at this service were President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, and VP Joe Biden – along with some Congressional leaders and staff.
These three men, who in a previous life ran the country, became simple men of God as they spoke quietly, but thoughtfully about the men and women who were buried here after the crash of Flight 93. You could see the empathy in their faces – almost no one in America has a free ride these days.
And so, while I missed watching the Mets yesterday afternoon, I feel that I made this one better choice, and I am a better person for it.
