He stared toward a cloudless sky, a tear was present in his eye.
What did he see I wondered loud – this man of strength did not look proud.
Transfixed we watched through a camera’s lens; strangers before, now oddly friends.
What are his eyes held witness to? What’s stirring such tears of painful hue?
Electronically we were connected, our lives attached, a stopped nation affected.
What horror was there, upon his gaze? – What caused such pain amid the haze?
Some sounds not known were heard aloud – and people screamed amid the crowd.
We struggled to sense what view they saw, the fireman’s face was present more.
His sorrowed eyes bleeding despair – my God, what was he seeing there?
I could not move, we stood transfixed, my view of hell would soon be nixed.
He bore my witness through those flames, this hell on earth from terror planes.
Our Eagle screamed….. the metal cracked, two once proud towers stood attacked.
The human toll still yet unknown, our feeling safe was overthrown.
Finally as I stared I recognized….. what was causing those tears in that fireman’s eyes.
Oh – My – God, humanity was being lost – and helplessly we saw the cost;
The sound of people,… people,… jumping down, from towers strong in our New York town.
Locked in horror, frozen, all there stood – bewildered eyes saw nothing good.
We viewed a scene of great despair…amid evil, smoke, and hate filled air.
Connected witness we became, to terror’s rage and human pain.
Trapped atop a blinding heat, were once moms and dads upon the street.
A “better option“?… caused by hate – to leap the flames and own your fate.
More horrid thoughts we’d never known, not from before the glass had blown.
Theirs was not an option for the stair, their only choice hands locked in prayer.
I cannot grasp the thoughts that crossed – the minds of those loved, soon to be lost.
As victims now…. their life soon ceased, a hurling body – soul released;
and for those who bore witness, my God the pain; those memories seered will long remain.
Connected all we stood aghast, all witness to the terror blast.
Their bodies torn, their spirit lost; memories now……. a priceless cost.
But what we have now to decide; reflecting on this place they died.
The Blood-soaked ground, the empty skies, our throat in knots, our tear filled eyes.
A memory now so deeply burned, their sacrifice for us was learned.
The hurt, the pain, the bitter sorrow, must guide us now toward tomorrow.
For those we loved and families lost, no gold of man can count the cost.
Through the eagles’ tears our nations price, we must honor those of sacrifice.
How do we honor such courage bold, and warm our souls despite the cold.
A daunting charge ‘mid our mortal stage – to reflect that courage amid our rage.
Two decades past and now we find – our hearts, our souls, our tears, our mind.
Still harken back and feel those tears; the wound -the scar- through many years.
Memories honored must remain, our task in life to cherish that pain…
For souls we lost and sorrow bound – we must always respect such hallowed ground.
~Sundance
Our turn is coming soon. We have had a long wait and it has been a long suffer. The majority had to hear it, see it and now feel it. America has to live in the heart and for so many this has not been the case. They live with convolution and never experiencing fullness which comes from being an “American”.
We who love America an the freedom it means, is our weapon by the example we live our lives. If they are on the other side they can only “hate”. They have nothing but material, void of substance and spirit.
This is how we win in the end. ….and our time is coming back soon. They will not be able to ever reconcile their stealing of America. The American people will never ever succumb…..and they the enemy hear it, see it and are starting to feel it. They know they are defeated.
Sundance,
You Sir represent the very BEST qualities of being a
human being. I am so thankful to be a Treeper!
God Bless you always:-)
It must be named, Desperation/Desperado…
Which is the same as those who died clinging to parts of a C-17 departing straight out of Hell….
Or as General George Washington described, “An American would rather die on his feet than live on his knees”
May God shower extra helpings of Mercy and Grace on his family and all those who loved and cared for him…
Twenty years, and remembering is still so painful to me.
Today. the words and appearances of Biden and Harris, meant to divide..are painful.
God help America.
Thank you Sundance
I just listened to Verdi’s “Requiem” on PBS. I did not know it was on, which ofttimes is better – just came across it, needing to hear some meaning to the madness tonight. I turned it to FULL VOLUME. Had to. There is no other way to hear it – authentically. One must hear it as Verdi orchestrated it to get the full effect. The music and words have NEVER been so meaningful and poignant in my entire life as they were tonight. I know this piece well- have sung it 3 times, have recorded it in Duke Chapel, have been in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Chorus (when I worked there) with the greatest soloists in the world: Maureen Forester, Kathleen Battle, Luciano Pavarotti, with Leonard Slatkin conducting. Tonight…..I sang it once more…. through my tears & memories….I screamed, I shook my fists, I got on the ground and prayed like I’ve never prayed before. I thank God for the gift of music to allow us to express that which cannot be expressed in words.
Will have to listen to it today. Music says it all.
Sorry, this is string of multiple posts. I’ve been away. My body is kinda away.
It started on …… Friday the 13th. I think the irony is kinda delicious. Anyway,
that’s the day I found out that I had the Covid exposure. This isn’t what that’s about . I just have it. Not a small case. Enough to completely uproot my previously absurdly stellar health. Hospitalize me . Twice. Put me on oxygen, take me off work. Scare the hell out of my kids and siblings. And give me time to think about a whole bunch of stuff over this past year.
We ARE WINNING. They can take everything away from us, and we still have souls, empathy , and goodness. They don’t realize it, but we have them utterly surrounded. The smug, the evil, the superficial don’t realize it. What is “it”?
Simple. Their despicable behaviour make them highly visible. Because nobody else acts like that. It’s up to us to know that, embrace that, and pass it on. Because it’s true.
This is part 1. Sorry I’m chopping this up. Part 1: telling everyone why we are winning. Part 2 (next) telling how the evil and smug out themselves, and why they don’t know they are standing naked among the clothed.
Part 3. My own story about this past year. Being drowned alive in goodness, sincerity, and sheer human regard during a year that EVERYTHING went wrong.
And hoping that what I lost shows others what they should be looking for.
Part 2.
Finding empathy in a neighborhood full of virtue signaling signs.
A few years back my daughter bought a beater car. A low mileage beater car.
A station wagon. Even though she didn’t drive. (long story). She loved it.
We drove it. It had a hello kitty painted on the back fender, seat belts that pulled up around you when you put the key on, and a BLUE interior. Everythings blah and drab these days.
One hot summer day the family piled into the beater car ( it actually was in great physical shape), and went off to eat at C-C’s Pizza. Towards “affluent,
fashionable Emory area.
Myself, my daugher, two sons. High school aged to mid 20s. Nicely dressed. I’d nagged them to put on “something less sloppy”.
We almost reached our destination, and the car. Stopped. Dead. On the 4 lane.
In rush hour traffic. Lucky that we were in an inside lane, the the 3 men pushed the car out of the traffic, and into an adjacent neighborhood. Homes not particularly big. My own was about 3o0 square feet bigger. But, because of where they sat, pricey. About 100K more then my home.
Where we initially parked was about 100 yards inside the subvision. Bad call.
People coming in off the main drag, almost rear ending us.
So, the men piled out, my daughter steered, and and we pushed the car around the corner, and parked it safely on a side street. It was hot out that day, but everyone was out walking. The amount of homes with virtue signaling signs in the area was sky high. Absurd. Depressing. “BLM” everywhere. Mainly, multi colored “In this house we believe” signs.
We had been in this enclave for 1/2 hour. And all the passers by had done one thing. Which was not acknowledge that we existed. Another 1/2 hour passed, and not one person had asked the obvious question: “car trouble?”.
When the car died, the cellphone charger did too. Poor advance prep, typical in our family. So Trip A couldn’t be called. Another 1/2 hour passed. It was getting hot, and we sought some shade on a curb up from the pricey homes.
Persons continued walking. Not acknowledging us. They did however give us the stink eye. And, my kids turned into their old man. They started ragging on
the virtue signalers, their behaviour, and what should be on their signs.
“In this home we believe anyone that has parked a 1995 Ford in front of it is planning to rob us”. “In this home, we never smile under any circumstance”. “In this home, the women and the poodles that they walk have the same helmet hair”. “In this home, we believe that anyone that is sitting on the curb out front has escaped from a trailer park.” ” In this home,
when we look in a mirror, we don’t see any reflections”.
The last one was the most brutal. I was so proud of my own son when he uttered it “In this home we are most likely quite fond of Satan”.
We were stuck on that affluent, “kind” ( didn’t all the signs out front let you know that? Street for 3 hours. NOT ONE person ackowledged or spoke to us.
Car trouble? Nope. Need a tow. nada. Would you like some water ? ( it was in the 90s) no way.
A landscape truck pulled up. And pulled across the street. End of shift, hot day. Double cab, very diverse crew. And asked: Car trouble? “Yeah, it stopped.
I thought that it was the alternator. Need some gas? they asked. I didn’t know.
Jesus, we have any 4 cycle left? The crew boss asked. No. He answered. “We’ll be back they said, and went off to get some gas. Even though I told them that I only had an ATM on me. “Don’t worry about it”. The gas didn’t work, but the crew boss had an almost atomic cell phone charger. Triple A would be there in 1/2 hour. At least one thing had gone right. Another crew member took a look at my daughter, who by now was beet red, and said “give her some water” . They brought cups off the back next to the cooler, and we all gulped down some water. Every single person on that truck offered us some type of kindness, care and regard.
Not one person in the neighborhood where they sat had even thought about doing something similar. For three whole hours. Even though the signs out front of their houses said that they were just the best persons ever.
WE ARE WINNING. The World around us is those guys on the landscape truck.
The persons in the fancy houses that have to have signs announcing to everyone how good they are are something far different.
Vastly outnumbered. Profoundly outnumbered. Absurdly outnumbered. The only thing that has them convinced other is the bullshit that the media feeds them.
Everyone else is worthwhile. They aren’t . They are NAKED among the clothed. They are walking down the street scowling in their helmet hair,
in their absurd flesh colored bra and panties. It’s up to us to start pointing
and laughing accordingly. Because they are the emperors in their minds. In ours we need to show them they have no clothes.
Part 3. And, I apologize about hogging the thread.
This year has been brutal. My wife passed after an overwhelming
illness back in February. Not Covid. Just her brain and her heart
beating up on her for 12 days. Her heart won the battle and took her out
in the end. It was awful, but it was brief. I also thought that it was merciful, because she never woke up, and hopefully never knew what hit it because it was worse then a Mack Truck.
It devastated my kids. It made me feel robbed. It had been a rocky marriage for much of it’s length, but my wife had cracked the code about being happy and content. And just when she had allowed herself that luxury, her health went. No 30th anniversary. No 60th birthday. Worst thing in my mind? The women that had given me 3 children would never see any grandchildren from any of them.
What kept us all sane was this. When all this was going on myself and my family was being buried alive with kindness and regard from neighbors, coworkers, friends, my own family. I finally got a long thank you letter together this week and sent it out to everyone that did random routine acts of kindness to absurdly time consuming help that loaded family into different cars to travel 540 miles to help their brother. The list is way over
100 persons long.
And, I’m harping on the point, but WE’RE WINNING. Look how much raw human kindess I found laying around loose in my prescence a few months back. My only regret is how long it took me to notice it was there.
I am not alone in this one. Take a look around you. Turn off that damn TV
( most here have) , and see how truly wonderful the average person is.
Thanks for anyone that waded through all this. We are blessed. We just have to remember it sometimes.
Thank YOU and God bless you and your family.
Blessings back at ya
YTG, I always enjoy your posts and am saddened to hear of your loss. You’re in my prayers.
Like you, I have experienced much pain, suffering, and loss over the past year-and-a-half. It’s really almost unbelievable how everything has become a perfect storm for destruction.
But like you also, I have lately been very optimistic. It’s not just what I see and hear, it’s a palpable feeling. It won’t be easy, and things may get worse before we start seeing things turn around, but goodness and light are on the way.
Like you said, removing the negative from your life is imperative. They deserve mockery and shunning if need be. Let them go to a little enclave together and put a wall around them, so the rest of us who believe in common sense and American greatness can be free, secure, and prosperous. Keep the faith! 🙂
It’s there. Stronger then ever . And, I suck out loud at religion.
I started going to a new church before this last round of disaster happened.
I saw worth in what I was seeing, but I felt like an imposter. I never received
any biblical education , cathecism growing up. I felt like the kid that showed
on test day that hadn’t cracked the book open. I wimped out on showing up.
So I wonder if they think I’m the fraud I felt like.
Maybe all of that isn’t pertinent in the discussion. But, I have a gut instinct that I rely on . It rarely lets me down. We have so much raw lying going on right now about everything that I think the world is waking up to what’s going on. It’s like everybody has caught their cheating wife at it during the act. Once you reach that point, there’s no going back.
I think we’re getting there. Only it’s with how much good there is buried underneath all the lies .
You can’t convince me otherwise.
Thank you, and I agree. Your assessment is spot on.
you have my condolences. At this moment I’m starting my 3d week of hospitalization for VERY nasty case of the Wuhan. My recovery has been nothing less than miraculous, I actually feel great, but the instant fatigue at any exertion is devastating. (I attribute my recovery to sneaking ivermectin horse paste into the hospital in an empty face cream jar after paramedics brought me in. Hospital confiscated all the zinc/c/d3 etc I was taking. My doc doesn’t even know I took the ivermectin. )I pray this week I’ll go home and see my husband and cats I haven’t seen since Aug 24.
yes, this gives one LOTS of time to think and get a new understanding of what’s important. For me it’s God, my husband and cats, and my country. In that order. I will pray God gives you frequent moments of sunshine in what I know has been a dark time.
Wanna compare heart rates? I do anything and mine zooms. We tried to get some ivermectin when this first started. Word is getting out around Atlanta, because my son went to 5 tractor supplies in the metro. All sold out.
Out of curiousity: does that stuff taste as bad as I imagine it too? I didn’t know
what it tastes like, but in my mind it was going to be the worst stuff I ever put in my mouth. Had I been able to locate some.
YTG, Thank you for sharing your pain and optimism. I understand some doctors will prescribe “human” ivermectin tablets if you tell them you’re traveling to a country with sanitation problems. My own doctor told me there were 3 independent pharmacies who would fill the Rx in my city. I would expect there to be more independents in a city the size of Atlanta. Good luck.
AnimalHealthUSA.com
I was able to purchase 3 50ml. bottles.
Oh, WOW! You brought tears to my eyes!
God bless you SD. God bless America.
God bless you Sundance.
Captured
~ on so many levels.
Photos speak volumes as well.
✝
Thank you for sharing yourself……
and for your fellowship and leadership, Sundance ❣
Thank you for putting all those thoughts together so movingly. It’s why I read you first everyday!
Thank you, Sundance, for putting what we all feel into such eloquent words. God bless you, God bless this site for which we are so thankful, and God bless America.
Thank You , Sundance ?
Your Wise Words Meant So Much to me ?
May Our Lord Bless You
and Hold You Close ?
May God Bless you always. May God Bless the USA.
Thank you SD.
Thanks Sundance. I’m hearing drums. The hour is near.
I am blessed and grateful to be a treeper.
Thank you.
Thank you Sundance, tears in my eyes this morning.
I just read this magnificent poem this morning and literally almost cried, there were tears in my eyes.
There is no one out there like our Sundance. Nobody.
He is the heart and soul of a Patriot and an amazing human being.
I don’t know how he does it all day long, but thank you for being the BEST journalist on the planet.
Beautiful. It says sooo much. I have added this to my 9/11 collection.
They never were able to identify the Falling Man.
I think they did. He was a worker at the Windows on the World restaurant. Jonathan Briley. His father was a preacher.
Thanks. I didn’t know that. I had read that they believed he was an employee of Windows on the World, but hadn’t been identified. It is nice to know his name.
Has islam made any “reforms” in the last 20 years? Has the Pope’s new BFF Grand Imam Sheikh al-Tayyab, the most revered Sunni scholar from al-Azhar in Cairo eliminated forever the sanctified duty to murder apostates? Or the murder of Blasphemers? Or the rule allowing husbands to copulate with their dead wives?
It seems that all these liberal Christian priests and rabbis have bent over backwards to allow muslims to chant, in a language they know the congregation won’t understand, prayers that denigrate the very faith of their dhimmi hosts. The Pope has equated islam as an “Abrahamic Faith” when even an idiot knows Mohammad basically rearranged parts of the Torah and New Testament to suit his needs. (Heck, we don’t even know if Mohammad existed). Heck, talk about culture misappropriation; muslims took the story of Abraham’s near-sacrifice in Canaan and transposed it hundreds of miles away to the barren and empty western Arabian peninsula and then made a big deal of the Kaaba being built (despite NO mention of it in the Torah).
Hitchens’s definition of “islamophobia” (coined by british islamicists in the 1990s) “A term invented by fascists, used by cowards, to manipulate morons” is the best one yet.
(The muslims conveniently changed Isaac to the cast off son of Hagar, Ishmael, in the sacrifice story or Abraham). Even the Israelites knew Ishmael was going to be a sociopath.
Speaking of which, the islamacist pushy daughter of Dr. Omeish of Falls Church Hiraj Terror Mosque, Abrar Omeish, as the city councilwoman or school board member voted DOWN a resolution to mark a remembrance of the dead of 9/11 due to, you guessed it , Islamophobia!! This Yale graduate and member of their MSA had tried to cancel former-muslim Ayann Hirsi Ali from speaking at the annual Buckley Society Dinner at Yale because Hirst Ali might enlighten the guests on the evils of islam that SHE LIVED THROUGH! You can YouTube Omeish being arrested after being pulled over for running a red light from 2 years ago and how she feigns ignorance that she ran the red light, refused to provide the lawful officer her license and registration, and then refused to get out the car and had to be pepper sprayed, while trying to use her muslim racist card.
And at Washington University of Saint Louis, a student who is the finance person on the student government, Fadel Alkilani, pulled up all 2977 American Flags planted with permission by the College Republicans, and put them in garbage bags. His excuse was “islamophobia” and how the US is imperialistic against muslim countries. Hopefully he will be expelled.
Religion of Peace. That one is offensive.
That poem brings tears to your eyes.