By Kelly Ferber,
VRNA president
Some of the headlines in various newspapers the week of Sept. 11 read as follows:
"Day of terror"
"Terrorized"
"Terrorism hits home"
"After the evil"
"Our nation saw evil"
"50,000 troops called"
Yes, Sept. 11, 2001, and the days that followed will surely change this great nation for years to come. Where were you at approximately 8:45 a.m. on that day? I am confident that everyone old enough to comprehend the events of that day will always remember where they were and what they were doing when they saw or heard a report about the attacks. I know I will never forget, just as I have never forgotten Dec. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, even though I was a small boy at that time. Nor will I ever forget the day in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Does tragedy like this have to happen to unite America? I have not seen such a display of patriotism shown for a long time. On Sunday, Sept. 16, I held a "Patriotism Alive" rally in Fergus Falls, Minn., and the crowd packed the high school auditorium. We're also seeing flags flying everywhere and citizens are wearing red, white and blue, whether it's clothing, ribbons or flag pins.
And we're seeing this with the younger people in our community also. Just a few blocks from where I live is a daycare center with pre-school children. My wife was outside on Sept. 14 and much to her surprise, the woman who runs the center had the children out in front of our home where they were standing with their hands over their hearts reciting the "Pledge of Allegiance" to the flag we have in our front yard. What a heart-warming experience.
Although time has past since the recent horrible tragedy, my thoughts and prayers, along with those of the Board of Directors of the VRNA, go out to the civilians, firefighters, police and military personnel. We would especially like to salute the emergency and rescue workers who gave their lives while helping others.
America will overcome this foe and rise up to become greater than ever, just as we have in the past with World War I and II, Korea, Vietnam,the Gulf War and several other small skirmishes. Yes, America and its greatness will prevail and that triumph will be because "United we stand."
