Walking down Unter-den-Linden in Berlin my wife and I decided to catch a cab back to the train-station for the two and a half hour trip back to Warnemünde and our cruise ship. The cabbie was a cheerful former East German who had minimal English skills but who tried out every word in English he knew.
Arriving at the train station we had a 15 minute wait so we chatted with some of our fellow shipmates and I noticed the German television on the overhead rack with the beginning of a news flash, but my German is fairly poor and I didn’t understand much beyond “New York” and “Vereinigen Staaten (United States). As we boarded the train, one of the passengers mentioned hearing about a bomb going off in New York City.Curious but not surprised I asked what he had heard. “I’m not sure, but I heard it was pretty bad.” A couple of minutes later one of the Tour guides came around each compartment and told us that there had been an apparent terrorist strike in New York on the WTC and that a second plane had just hit the other tower.
A large number of passengers on the ship were retired military and speculation was rampant, but without much information but each new bit of information indicated how bad the strike was, and then we heard of the Twin Towers collapsing and knew that we were effectively at war. Arriving at Warnemünde after dark, we walked to the docks with mouths hanging open at the number of armored personnel carriers and German soldiers that weren’t there when we disembarked early that morning. The soldiers and police were checking each bag, comparing passports photos to the person carrying the passport, etc. Arriving in our cabin at around 10 or 11 PM, we watched CNN through much of the night.
After a stop in Holland, we continued on to London where we had originally planned to fly home after a two day stay. Needless to say, there was a very long wait before flying back to the states would be possible and trying to get through to family was extremely difficult.
We went over to the United States Embassy because we had heard that the English had established a “memorial park” there and I want to see what was there. Amid the flowers, cards and posters expressing condolences, I found this and took the photograph you see here 
Now, this is a simple photograph, taken through my eyes,a bit bleary with tears. Accompanying the child’s toy is the child’s card which you can’t see in this photo and it says “To all the brave firemen who died.”
That is the meaning of 9-11. With America under attack, with lives in danger, more than 300 firemen died trying to save the lives of countless others. Without their efforts, and the efforts of the police, the port authority and numerous brave other folk, what could have been a tragedy with over 30,000 casualties, 300 plus gave their lives that others may live.
That is the message and the meaning of 9-11. There are those that think it means that the US is vulnerable. That we have no business in the Middle East, that failure will follow failure, but they are wrong. Know this, enemies of the United States of America, we will ALWAYS have brave individuals in this country who will shoulder any burden, brave any task, yea, walk into any burning building if their fellow citizens are at risk. You cannot defeat such a people and will only insure your own demise if you try.
God Bless America; God bless our fighting men and women.
Said GM @ 7:29 am | Permalink
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September 11th Tribute, William R Ruth
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