In Remembrance - God Bless America

We all know it as 9/11, the deadliest day in the history of our Republic, a day of infamy, 21st century style, an America under siege, an America in mourning.

We all saw it in television pictures.

It lives in us as a shared experience of horror, terror, and fear. Deep inside in the place where we all hurt, where we all seek shelter. What we were to live through immediately after the New York and Washington raids would change us forever, change the way we saw ourselves, our government, and our vulnerabilities.

Thousands dead. Unspoken heroism. An endless ache. A will to survive. An America in transition.
We fight a New War to end their Holy War. Jihad is a term now a part of our national think and speak. Homeland Security reshapes the face of government to intensify our shore to shore defense. We are a people in waiting for the worst. There is no closure, no boundaries. What those September television images delivered us is forever rooted in the American psyche.

Perhaps those images are even more precious now as we ready to celebrate the 4th of July, our heritage, our national birthday.

This comes after clean-up at Ground Zero is completed at a cost of a billion dollars and done in less time than projected.

How we deal with those tortuous pictures as individuals is what life after 9/11 is all about just nine months later. Hard to believe it was just nine months ago.

We are traveling new paths as a nation and as a people.
Ask anyone.

First ask Jim Brady, a Tybee Island slate artist. An original. He is sensitive, driven, and still cares about those pictures he saw on television that morning. " Felt I had to do something. I came up with this design and to sell it was blasphemy."

What he creates in slate is a replica of the World Trade Center's 1,300 foot Twin Towers.

And what he does with them is incredible.

" I've already made and sent 370 to families who lost a loved one in the raids. The first six I hand delivered to Pennsylvania families. I got their names off the internet and through political offices. I would knock on their doors saying I had something that hopefully would make a difference. Just couldn't handle that emotionally. Now I mail them to the families."

He does so at a cost of $7.20 a package...his cost. His mission since 9/11 is to make and deliver all the Towers he needs to match the victim list now near 3,800 to their families.

He is less than ten percent of goal and says he has the rest of his life to get the job done.

Brady recruited two sponsorships on Tybee at the American Legion and Doc's Bar. That helps his expense line. He is counting on a word of mouth campaign to do the rest. The reaction to his efforts so far is mixed in that some business owners don't want to be reminded of 9/11. " They don't want to think of that many people dead, " he explains.

He also designed The Victims of War Missing In Action Memorial that he sent onto President George Bush to list the names of people killed in the terrorist attack. New ideas do not scare off Jim Brady. Nothing much seems to get in his way. He is a 57 year old Air Force veteran from Yonkers, New York, and a Tybee resident for the last four months. Tybee's climate won him over to live marsh side.

About 9/11, Brady is concerned that we'll get complacent after time because we are a nation of problem fixers, and tend to forget. He is afraid there will be a... "resurgence in patriotism only after something else happens. " I get angry that people aren't still crazy to support the mentality to end this. It's got to end sometime. Is it patriotism or self protection? Politics is playing games with this," he laments.

One person. One mission.

He asks why the American flag is not being flown today from our homes and cars as it once was so proudly following the attacks? Not so at the house he shares with roommate Jimmy Carter, A Vietnam Era U.S Marine Corps Corporal, and City Council Candidate.

They've painted flags on two sides of the house.
Old Glory Lives.

Jim Brady is keeping the candle of hope burning past security headaches, anthrax scares, and government warnings that a terrorist attack could be imminent. That is his path in the New World. In the New America.

And maybe that is what Mr. Brady is showing us all about freedom: Ensure it, and remember who died for it. Never forget those horrible pictures we all shared together. Never forget that sad linkage to the future.

Jim Brady fights Bin Laden with a chisel and cuts slate to fight international terrorism. One person. One mission. One day at a time. His 4th of July is a benchmark, a beautiful benchmark that tells him it is all worth the effort, all worth his time. Godspeed, Jim Brady.

As Lee Greenwood sings, God Bless The USA.


Michael D. Sullivan