story6212.xml

story6212.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I walked in the door and my partners said, "Hurry and see what just happened in New York!" I was transfixed and could think of little else for days. I cried, I grieved, and then, in meditating on the events of that day over and over again, I was impressed to write a poem and then the lyrics to a song, which helped encapsulate my feelings on the matter. I've included both for your repository:

Hear ? the Tolling Bell
by
George R. Larsgard
9-15-01
While reflecting on the suicidal attacks of radical Muslims on America vis-?-vis, the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters of Tuesday, 9-11-01 and the portent of the Memorial Service at the National Cathedral on Friday, 9-14-01. There was a poignant moment when, as the service dismissed, a solitary bell tolled slowly, hauntingly, resolutely, resolvedly . . . determinedly.


Airplanes smashing
Fires flashing
Buildings crashing
Here ? the icons fell

Inconceivable
Unbelievable
Irretrievable
Hear ? the tolling bell

So much trying
So much dying
So much crying
Hear the mourning tell

Of tragic cost
Of loved ones lost
Of lifetimes ? tossed
Hear ? the tolling bell

Even in our wildest dreams
Our nightmares weren?t this mad
Questing the unquestable?
Forcing the unforceable?
Robbing the unrobbable?
Freedom ? they?ve never had

The yearning of the ages,
What man has striven for
Liberty, unveiled
Liberty, prevailed
Liberty, unassailed
We demand it! Ever more!

Remorseless aggression?
Regardless suppression?
Repentless oppression?
Here? You listen well

We were born in revolution
We have built life up from there
Emancipation
Equalization
Self-determination
Hundreds of millions share

These Inspirations
These Realizations
These United Nations
Hear ? the tolling bell

Freedom you decay
Freedom you betray
Freedom! You will pay
Hear ? the tolling bell


Never . . . in Quite the Same Old Way

By George R. Larsgard

11-4-01 While noticing an airplane flying overhead and reflecting on the September 11th terrorist attacks on America and all the subsequent threats and heartache since . . . the anxieties, the shattered lives, the maimings, and the deaths. Lyrics for my song written for the victims? families.


We will never look at airplanes in quite the same old way
Soaring freely through the lofty, azure sky
Taking hundreds on their way to destinations near or far
Flying to awaiting arms there by and by
Hushed to silence in a moment, burned up in the flames
These were someone?s loved ones calling out their names
For those in pain or suffering; for you who grieve or mourn
We all have been affected; our hearts, too, were torn

We will never look at buildings in quite the same old way
Standing firmly on the ground, through day and night
Holding thousands there inside them as they do their daily jobs
Working toward their lifetime goals and stars so bright
Crushed to silence in a moment, burned up in the flames
These were someone?s loved ones calling out their names
For those in pain or suffering; for you who grieve or mourn
We all have been affected; our hearts, too, were torn


No worthwhile cause, idea, or passion promotes the terror we have seen
It makes itself a vomit, a putrescence; filth; unclean
It declares its own extinction as a cancer to mankind
Exterminate a free world? If you preach it ? you will find
The free world will excrete you ? your goal is truly blind
You should never threaten freedom! It is one united mind!


We will never look at nations in quite the same old way
For we are a world-wide fam?ly ? by God?s decree
Having each our own dimensions; each our qualities
Sharing, though, that one desire ? that all mankind be free
Rushed to fight or to surrender, or burn up in the flames
We are millions, even billions, calling out our names
We stand with those in pain or suffering; with you who grieve or mourn
You loved ones have not grieved in vain ? our freedom is reborn
Renewed and strengthened; broadened; lengthened ? our freedom is reborn

To all the voices of expression, may I add mine as one of hope amidst the devastation that we will go on - renewed and strengthened; broadened; lenthened - our freedom is reborn.

George R. Larsgard