Story of the Day
"The
Unity of Stranger"
Tonight a friend called. He was going by himself to a nearby park in Los
Angeles with a bunch of candles to think and honor the victims of September 11.
He wasn't sure if anyone else would show up. Nothing had been scheduled.
I had been looking for some place to go to share my feelings with others.
I gathered a few candles, a small American flag and met him.
At 7:00 P.M., we
were the only people in the park, but a small group of people who appeared to be
from a church were on the sidewalk handing out candles and lyrics to patriotic
songs. We began to sing.
As darkness fell,
we set up our candle shrine and more people came. They brought flags and
more candles. People began driving by, honking, parking, and joining.
More people, more flags. Huge ones, tiny ones, one homemade and colored
with crayons by a child when his local store ran out. Another friend
showed up with her dog that was wearing a red, white, and blue kerchief.
People started lining the streets and waving their flags. Across the
street we saw a long line of marchers carrying votive candles. They had
been called about the gathering in the park. The crowd swelled, shouting
"U.S.A!" and waving their flags. There was an older Armenian
lady mourning a loss who added her candle to our shrine. They kept coming:
Latino families, Asians, young and old, a man in a wheelchair and a homeless man
from the park with a flag stuck atop the shopping cart that held all his
belongings.
Then, the
firefighters came...not to tell us we were a fire hazard, but to park their
massive trucks on each side of the corner. We cheered these symbols of
American heroism and shook their hands. The ladder truck started raising
its tall ladder with a big American flag at the top into the night sky. It
swung out over the street as it extended and the flag waved. We cheered as
the firefighters climbed to the top of the ladder. Cops drove by, honked
and turned on their sirens. The corner was ablaze with candlelight and we
kept singing. People I'll never see again sang them with me. More
people came. The blare of continuously honking horns filled the air as
flag-decorated cars drove by and approved of our demonstration. I spoke to
a female firefighter who had just returned from digging for survivors for two
days in the rubble of the World Trade Center. She needed to see this kind
of support, and we were happy to give it to her.
Later, I met a
young woman who had been eating at a restaurant across the street. She saw
our group, went home to get her flag and returned. It was a huge flag and
she could only hold up one end of it, so I took the other end. We stood in
front of the people lining the street, waving the flag. We joined others
chanting "U.S.A!" and singing "America the Beautiful" and
"Grand Old Flag" as more fire trucks passed and briefly put on their
sirens. CNN News showed up and started shooting, a news helicopter
circled overhead, and the ABC and CBS local vans pulled up. Photographers
from many papers took countless pictures.
I hope those images
are part of a huge patchwork that stretches across America to other cities and
all the countries of the free world – to other corners and other strangers
standing strong, defiant and steadfast together, heads and flags held high.
Despite our many nationalities, religions and political differences, we are
united in a sorrow, anger and determination that no ragtag army of madmen can
ever defeat. This was a night I'll never forget, part of a time in history
when, no matter how diverse, the people of Los Angeles were one...on one
corner...where only a few had stood only a short time before. That's what
the madmen didn't count on and what will, in time, defeat them.