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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