One country, many voices

Expressing loss, addressing terror, finding hope

	Contributed photo by Kieth Herron A car seen by Kieth Herron beneath the Brookly Bridge on September 12. (Click for larger image)

To the editor:

I happened upon a parade last Sunday in Port Jervis. It originated at the Fire House. It was like no other parade I had ever seen.

Though stirring martial music played, there was a moving absence of waving and smiling—and quite a few tears. And at the head of the column were five or six former Airborne soldiers wearing expressions that I hope and trust their families and friends rarely see. Sadness and implacable anger were written on those faces and it was a sobering and stirring sight.

Having been part of the hospital unit at Fort Bragg (Home of the 82nd Airborne) for about two years, I took home many lessons. One lesson I learned was that nobody—nobody—messes with Airborne unless they’re suicidal or nuts. That was true then and it’s true now.

Those guys in Port Jervis looked like they might have gone in on D-Day and  raised more than a little hell. Their inheritors are no less able. The suicidal lunatics holed up in the mountains half a world away are in for it if those expressions reflect the feelings of most Americans. And I think they do.

Lee Karr
Forestburgh, NY

To the editor:

What took place in the World Trade Center Towers was horrendous. But, it catapulted people to turn to God in prayer. Quickly, prayer groups flourished as people remembered that Almighty God was the greatest source of help. So now a spiritual awakening is taking place. This may be the silver lining to such a sorrowful cloud.

Irene Sackett,
Callicoon, NY

To the editor:

I would like to share the following letter with your readers. It is from a woman named Patty, of New Yorkers for Companion Animals (NYCA):

I have been going to the Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC), an NYC animal shelter, since they opened. In all my years of rescue from this shelter, I have never seen what was witnessed in the aftermath of the WTC tragedy. Cars were double-parked up and down the block on 110th Street. Inside the shelter, the lobby was completely full with people dropping off animals.

It seems many people for whatever reason (fear or possible damage to homes) are suddenly “moving” out of the city and cannot take their animals. An unusually high number of “strays” also suddenly are coming in: Five Purebred Chow Chows, Pomeranians and many other breeds. Sharon at the CACC showed me a smallish pure Collie who looked just like a scuffed-up version of Lassie. This very sweet, senior dog had just come in as “stray.” Cats, moms and litters were also everywhere, many of them suddenly abandoned after years in a home.

I was also informed today that a number of the animals in evacuated buildings around the ground zero area have been abandoned by caregivers. Or, perhaps the guardians have perished. In any event, no one has stepped up to claim the animals.

Sadly, we do not have sufficient offers of placement for them.

Please keep in mind: The city shelters are set up to take in any animal brought to them. Because of this, animals are euthanized as the need for space for incoming animals arises.

People who want to help these animals need to be contacting all rescue groups and shelters in New York who take CACC pets, including ours, NYCA. Most are listed on Petfinder.org. Or, if in New York, they can adopt directly from the shelter.

CACC is located at 326 E. 110 Street in New York. The phone numbers for CACC are 212/722-3620 or 888/772-9682.

Denise Adams
Mount Vernon, NY

To the editor:

The time is now! In the wake of the tragedy that has befallen our beloved country and the wave of patriotism that has swept America since, I believe the time is now to protect the symbol of America—our flag. The same Stars and Stripes, hoisted by rescue workers atop the rubble of the World Trade Center, planted on a hill in Iwo Jima and carried into battle in so many foreign countries, needs to be protected, for what it represents, against those who would defile it. The American flag represents the freedom, democracy and determination of all Americans.

I know I am not alone in the feeling of pride I experience seeing the flag flying from car antennas and displayed on stores and homes throughout our great nation and around the world in memoriam and solidarity. It is not the piece of cloth, plastic or paper that the flag is made from; it’s what it represents.

For the millions of Americans who have never experienced the horrors of war, this is reality folks. We have been blessed that we have never, our own Revolutionary War excepted, had a war fought on our soil. We have never before been attacked or invaded by a foreign power, in the continental United States, while most of the rest of the world has or is presently living under wartime conditions. For the millions of us who have fought on foreign soil to protect and uphold the standards that our flag represents, this is a reality that we never wanted to see and the reason we served our country overseas.

To allow anyone to tear, burn in disrespect, defecate or urinate on our national symbol can not be tolerated. Those who have opposed past legislation have done so based on our constitutional rights of free speech, etc. Do these rights give us the right to do whatever we want? If so, let’s scrap all the laws, do away with prisons and we can all “do our own thing” i.e.: robbery, murder, rape, etc… in our quest for freedom of expression.

I firmly believe that we must enact a law to protect the symbol that we all, now, so patriotically display. The time is now!

I urge you all to call, write and/or e-mail our elected representatives to make it unlawful to desecrate the symbol of all we stand for—the American flag.

David A. Slattery
Milford, PA