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Scrapbooking the Sadness

Posted October 21st, 2001 by rockester
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"Oh Say does that Star-Spangled banner yet wave...
over the land of the free and the home of the brave...."
~Frances Scott Key, 1814, Star Spangled Banner

I join the world in shock and sadness over the terrorist activity on Sept 11, 2001. It was a horrible day and I hope I never see the like of it again. It was something I first listened to on radio and later watched on television. Thousands of images came at me that day. Words and pictures really do carry a strong message. And on that day, and those that have followed, the photographs and video coverage carried both sad and heroic images. The words and speeches and cell phone messages also carried great impact. I think that it is fair to say that for at least three days, I absorbed words, images, sounds, and uttered prayers and I did little else.

The nature of tragedy is that it is overwhelming. At first, I did not do the dishes. I did not do my grocery shopping. I did not interact much with friends. I was riveted to news sources and in my own way trying to absorb the whole scope of the ordeal. I gleaned the internet for the latest data, the most poignant survivor stories. I checked my email loops a hundred times a day. I wanted the latest word. I shared in the anguish of those on my internet loops whose loved ones were missing. It was a lot to take in. Sometimes I think it was just too much. It almost seemed like some odd synthesis of real-life and a disaster movie.

I wrote the following poem on the evening of Sept 11th, 2001 about the events and you are welcome to use it in your scrapbook albums. (Just keep the author's name with it.)

Ghost Planes
by Kathleen Aho, "Rockester"

I see a plane...
no I see two planes.
And there are the ghosts of two more....
They fly low, heavy with sorrow...
prayers and good-byes unsaid.

I see a woman
running through dust with tears in her eyes
glad to be alive, yet afraid more is to come...
I see a man with glow stripe raingear go into a burning building
....a hero...will they ever find him again?

Twin icons fall...
Glass rains like water and rubble chokes like a killer.
Charred beams and bodies and the cruelty of a few strangers...
and hundreds run in the street.
yes they are running from death itself

A black face looks white with ash
A white face looks black with soot
we are all the same
staring upward with blank faces in disbelief.

Hundreds give red life blood
on the hope someone else will live and not die today...
We all go onward, forward
yet we look behind us to be sure we are still safe.
Do I hear the ghost planes whisper a hundred good-byes?

We will make it.
In grief, we stagger forward like those stunned from the rubble.
We cry for the missing,
and still have breath to call for justice.

Dealing with Grief for Families:
http://www.kidsdomain.com/review/features/trauma.html

Here are some other links that may help in your scrapbooking of this event:

Some of us will be adding these sad events into our personal scrapbooks as a reflection on the year. Here are some links meant to help that healing process.

Speeches Given:
Most of the major speeches given during the days following Sept 11 are online.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speechbank.htm

Click on the speech you want. Then highlight the text you want to copy with your mouse. Look under EDIT or FILE tab for COPY. Then go to a blank page in wordpad or your print shop program and PASTE the text in.

Photos from the events:
Every major news agency online has a gallery of photos you can search yourself with keywords like fireman, boat, wtc, pentagon, sermon, presidents, national cathedral, etc. Here is the home page for several of them...

http://www.cnn.com/
http://www.time.com/time/
http://www.time.com/time/
http://abcnews.go.com/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34368,00.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/

For example, the CNN photo galleries are at bottom of cnn home page and they have it all by category on the following page in red bar along the top under the word AMERICA's New War http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/wtc.zoom.html.


Free Flag Laser Die cut from Gina Bear
http://www.ginabear.com/ginabear.htm#FREE%20SAMPLES!

Check the Close to My Heart website for a dealer near you
http://www.closetomyheart.com/menu_products.aspx

Stamping Up Commemorative Rubber Stamp Link
http://www.stampinup.com/

Paper Piecing Links

And another Poem

An American
By Doris Beierlein

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I say my prayers for those who weep,
I close my eyes, my mind rewinds,
The horrendous evil of humankind.

How could this happen? How can it be?
I close my eyes, I continue to see,
The towers are hit, loved ones are dead,
The Towers fall, many cover their heads.

Another attack! The Pentagon hit!
Who will be next? Or will this be it?
A fourth plane is hijacked, it's passengers
fight! The heroes on board re-routed their
flight.

Thousands are dead, the world is in shock.
America now begins to take stock.
Our people are strong,
We will not relent.

And if you and your family want to do even more...Here are some activities:

FLY MORE THAN THE FLAG

In the wake of the Sept 11 events, several airlines have experienced slowdowns which have led to job cuts and financial concerns. Want to be patriotic? Already given blood, donated to the firefighter's fund, posted your flag, and so on? What can you do now?

Help the airlines.....
FLY more than the flag!
Don't let fear rule your life or your travel choices. Book a flight. Continue on with a flight already booked. Don't cancel. Fly don't drive. I do NOT work for an airline or have any stocks in them but I do see that they need us too.... Every dollar we spend on them with our travel dollars is one less we will have to spend later in a federal 'bail out'.

This will save jobs and may help save a few airlines. Five years from now, we will want to have a variety of choices in airlines, won't we?

Let's work to help them NOW!
Fly more than just the flag!

My apologies if this list is incomplete. It is not intentional.
 American Airlines

United Airlines

Northwest Airlines

Southwest

Continental

Delta

America West

Horizon/Alaska

US Airways

Above all, take heart...in the words Frances Scott Key wrote in witness to our Star-Spangled Banner in 1814 as he witnessed the violent storm of another military conflict almost 200 years ago.

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, and half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
~Frances Scott Key, 1814