From: Fred &Phyllis Denton <denton@flash.net>
To: Crews List
Date: Friday, 30
November, 2001 21:12
Subject:
30 November Back
in Texas Off Topic
Good
Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:
We were back in Texas
for Thanksgiving with our family. One more wonderful blessing.
In the mail was a newsletter from the American Cathedral in Paris. The Dean's message is poignant. If you will indulge us, we send you a copy.
"In This God I Trust"
Tuesday, September
11th, 2001 will live in the minds of Americans as a second day of
infamy like that experienced on December
7th, 1941. It was an unforgettable and shocking day for each of us,
especially as we witnessed through the media the insidious attack using human
bombs to murder innocent people. The decision to transform the Cathedral's
12:30 Eucharist the next day into one for all the victims was made Tuesday
night as we became inundated by the press and by sympathetic expressions of
concern. Someone left a vase of flowers and two lighted candles on the
footsteps outside our front gate on that evening, and now our Condolence Book
is full and the flowers keep coming to our foyer.
We Americans have been emotionally supported in France
in ways unimagined since the aftermath of World War 11. Most sympathize, of
course, not only with the destruction of familiar buildings, but more so with
the wanton disregard for human life that was involved. Le Monde, in a front
page editorial, said: "In this tragic time, when words to express the shock
we feel appear meaningless, the first thing that comes to mind is this: We are
all Americans." Yet there were many others besides Americans who worked in
these buildings. Families and relatives of the lost and dead are from more than
60 countries. For them also a vision of New York City
known around the world has been indelibly changed because Manhattan's
landscape is devoid of the well-known towers which to some were seen as demonic
symbols of western domination
Yet as Natalie Layzell wrote in
the International Herald Tribune: "ÉLady Liberty stands in
Dignity and defiance still, her torch aloft, telling
American friends and foes alike that she never cowered, and she never will. She
guards the massive grave that two human weapons wrought." Stronger than
any other symbol in New York she
represents the very best of our American ideals. Because the American Cathedral
was consecrated in 1886 a few days after the Statue was unveiled, we placed
Emma Lazarus's words on a sign outside the front gate, which reads: "Give
me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free." In Paris we
identify with these words, not just because they are American words but because
they are holy words. They arise from our biblical tradition and comply with the
thoughts of most religions, which emphasize mercy, recovery of the lost, and great joy in welcoming those who come in hopes of
a new life. These words will live long after terrorists commit criminal acts,
buildings tumble, and innocent people fall.
On January 6, 1941,
with another world war looming over the western world, President Franklin
Roosevelt, addressed a reluctant Congress in hopes of winning it to his idea of
the "Lend Lease Act. This enactment would offer - without breaking a
restricting Congressional law - needed materials of defense to Britain
and its free allies fighting tyranny in Europe. In that
speech he utilized the implications of freedom enshrined in the Lady of Liberty
and said, "In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look
forward to a world founded upon the four essential human freedoms. The first is
freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world. The second is
freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the
world. The third is freedom from want - which, translated into world terms,
means economic understandings that will secure to every nation a healthy
peacetime life for its inhabitants - everywhere in the world. The fourth is
freedom from fear - which translated into world terms
means a reduction in armaments to such a point and in such a thorough manner
that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression
against any neighbor - anywhere in the world."
The ideal of these freedoms has always been global, if not
universal, even though it has threatened closed minds, closed societies, and
closed political and religious mentalities. The destruction of the World Trade
Centers and the horrific loss of life cannot be reversed, but the terrorists'
acts which caused them can spur us on to pursue, with a new inspired energy,
the cause of freedom anywhere in the world. The four freedoms do not oppress
nor crush people but liberate the world from the small-minded animosities of
the simplistic outlook anywhere in the world. They remind us also that in the
pursuit of freedom "we are all Americans," as we are all British or
European or Asian or African or Middle Eastern.
In the Cathedral office is a World War II poster of Sir
Winston Churchill against a background of turmoil. It reads: "Let us go
forward together," which is the spirit we need now - one which includes
justice, to be sure, but not vengeance. Our Book of Condolences in the
Cathedral foyer continues to be signed by hundreds of visitors. One American
wrote these remarkable words: "The day the world changed! My daughter of New
York City has been missing since the attack. I believe
I shall discover her alive. If not, I will grieve, as a father of a lost child,
and I will harbor no reckless actions, lend myself to no support of unnecessary
violence against fellow citizens of the world. In this God I trust."
Neither the height of fallen towers nor the depth of fiery
craters can separate us from the love of God in New York
or anywhere else. "In this God I trust" is a credo that can give us
the courage we need in America
or anywhere in the world, as we move together into an unknown future which only
faith can assure.
Faithfully
Ernest E. Hunt, III, Dean
Keep a Tight Luff,
Phyl & Fred
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