Remember

O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife.

Who more than self their country loved,

 and mercy more than life.

America, America,  God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self control, Thy liberty in law.

-- words by Katherine Lee Bates



What is there to say today? The years since 9/11 have been shaped by the events of that day. Our goings and comings, our dreams and failures, our sense of who we are as a country -- a lot changed.

And yet, we are the same people who endure. We are a people with many faces, many colors, many ideas. We come to this country, many of us from immigrant stock, and together we have made it a great nation. No war, no conflict, no attack has taken that greatness from us.

Through floods and storms, through good times and bad, we are strong and we survive. We take care of each other and, as God is good, we welcome to this grand community others who want to be a part of the freedom that we have.

A lot changed on that day in September 2001. But even more stayed the same. We remain one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

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As a footnote to today's post, I want to remember Navy Commander Dan Shanower who died at the Pentagon on 9/11. He was 40 years old and grew up in Naperville, Illinois where my husband, Ed, and I met during our college days. Cmdr. Shanower's father, Don Shanower, was Ed's major professor in the Speech and Drama Department at North Central College from 1965 to 1969.

I never met Cmdr. Shanower, but spent many good times with his father, an excellent teacher and director, as I hung around the drama department with Ed. Naperville will honor the memory of Dan Shanower today at a memorial named for him. Once again, we will be thinking of his parents, Don and Pat Shanower, and of their loss of a son in the 9/11 attacks.

Photoshop image by Wanda Hayes Eichler
September 11, 2011