Organization site - Fall 2001
Issue: 2/20/01
Editor's Message
By Tina Vervoon, Journalist editor
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "I gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which I must stop and look fear in the face.... I say to myself, I've lived through this and can take the next thing that comes along."
These past few weeks have been a lesson in courage for us all. As our nation and indeed the world moves through the lingering mourning process, it is slowly being replaced with healing. A healing from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. The hearts of human beings are bound to change in the wake of tragedy and with the betrayal of freedoms that touched every American soul.
The World Trade Center, Pentagon and Pennsylvania acts never looked us in the face; we did not know whom to fear until it was too late. We were not afforded the luxury of stopping, we just kept moving – and we are still moving. People from many different faiths and cultures descended upon each other in this crisis to comfort and grieve together. As a nation united, we held our candles to the wind and defied the enemy.
They will never win.
Our America has rediscovered her roots and the meaning of freedom for all her people. Patriotism is a freedom that was unknown in its true form to many of us prior to September 11. This tragedy has awakened the patriot in us all – to honor our country, to love our neighbor and to change our hearts with tolerance.
We have "lived through this and can take the next thing that comes along."