Believe What You Believe, Know What You Believe

Plan A: Wake up super early in an attempt to create a blue & orange “hello” sign and stand in line to try to get our faces on the Today Show.
Plan B: Sleep in a little bit because the ever-so-popular Jonas Brothers were performing on the Today Show for 10,000 twelve year old girls…screaming girls…shrill, ear-piercing screaming girls.
We went with Plan B.
For everybody we did not get to say hello to on the Today Show, this is your hello.
HELLO!!!!!!!
Sorry that’s all you get, take your frustration out on a Jonas Brothers cd – more on a 12 year old girl who screams with the ability to break glass.
We were really hoping to get down to NBC’s morning show. We even went to Office Depot in Times Square to buy materials to make said “hello” sign, but when we got back to the hotel and looked up the information on how to get on TV, hundreds of reviewers said you needed to be there by 6 A.M. if there was no concert going on. If there was somebody famous that was making an appearance, then you probably needed to be there at midnight the night before in order to save your place in line. We however, are not Jonas Brothers fans, not 12 year old screaming girls, and not going to stand in line at midnight the night before just to get on the Today Show.
So we slept.
And it was probably a good thing because from 10:30 A.M. until close to 7 P.M. that next day, we sat for maybe a total of 20 minutes.

As soon as we got to Manhattan that morning, we went straight to the subway to attempt our first train ride to the southern part of the island where the Statue of Liberty awaited us. Okay, okay, so it was fairly simple, but it still would have been nice to have a little more help *tear*. When we arrived, we went straight to the ticket counter where we were told the wait to get on to the ferry that would take us to Liberty and Ellis Islands was one hour, 15 minutes. Not the best use of our time, I realize that, but come on, it’s the Statue of Liberty – you do what you gotta do. So we waited, and much to our pleasure, the wait was only 40 minutes. It’s somewhat surreal to be pulling into an island that has been shown in thousands of movie and TV clips and to be seeing the sight that millions of immigrants first saw as they pulled in to the NYC harbor on their way to bigger and better things. You don’t get the full glimpse of how huge this statue is just from seeing it on TV. You have to go see it for yourself, and I mean that whole-heartedly. Next to Liberty Island is Ellis Island where we were able to stand in the same building that millions of hopeful foreigners stood in with dreams on their minds of a new type of pursuit of happiness. Reading the story of what Ellis Island meant to so many men, women & children who came to America for a better life was very moving. We both wished as we left that day we would have more time to spend there. Maybe we’ll make it back to learn a little more eventually.

But the most touching point of our entire trip sat in a little church one block away from where the World Trade Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001. Everything we’ve seen from the MLK Jr. Historic Site and the Alamo, to the Carolina basketball Hall of Fame and the D.C. National Monuments, nothing ripped at our hearts more than seeing the faces of thousands of American citizens whose lives were taken on that horrible Tuesday morning. Across the street from the WTC site lies a humble, broken, church with a cemetery full of gravestones that have been worn away by time and tragedy. Inside that little church lays a make-shift memorial to the police departments, fire departments and volunteers who came to the rescue without any regard for their own life. Directly to the left as you step in to the church, a stand contains the thousands of patches from other police departments (national and international) that men and women have sent and left as a tribute to the American first responders. Words of well wishes and God-blesses cover the stand from top to bottom. Just past this spot you see a wooden church pew that looks as if someone took a knife and carved random etchings all over the seat and backboard. On the left side of this pew, a firefighter’s uniform that was actually worn on 9-11 lays draped across the wooden seat. When you read why the pew is carved up, it pulls at your emotions like a needy child tugging on your arm. The markings on the pew are from the numerous firefighters who made that their make-shift nap spot while trying to take a few moments of rest to gather strength for more attempts at digging through the rubble and saving more lives. Their helmets, belt buckles, suspender straps, and boots left the pews with scrapings and markings that damaged the wooden benches beyond repair. The church pondered on whether or not to have the pews professionally repaired, but decided not to in an attempt to have the public experience the church and memorial in a more real way. Other places in the church pay tribute to the thousands of lives lost on September 11, but one spot in particular just about brings you to your knees. If you think back to that day, you will remember the images that poured across our TV screens of the friends and family of people who were lost as they desperately searched for their loved ones. In their hands were pieces of paper and cardboard with photographs of the people they were looking for followed by a number to call if found. As the horrific news came in that very few survived those signs of “If found, please call…” turned into “In memory of…” Those very signs that brought tears to all of our eyes were right in front of us, hanging on a wire stand that was about 7 feet wide and the faces of all of those people who were lost stared back at us like a wall of reminders. The only sound in the church was the buzzing of three feet tall stand up fans doing all they could to keep the air cool on a hot, muggy day. But nothing about this church was cool. While it was an honor to pay respect to those people, it would have been much cooler had there not been any reason for a memorial like this. We walked out of the church on the verge of tears, grateful to be alive in a world that is full of uncertainty.

Our final stop of the day was the Empire State Building which I believe now stands as the tallest building in New York. Like the chicken that I am there was no way Rachel was going to get me in to an elevator that took me half way to outer space. She had already been to the top some years ago so I was going to take her word for it that the view was great, but I preferred to stand on the nice, solid ground. A look at the building was quite enough for me. Rachel snapped a photo of the structure and we were on our way back to our hotel.

Can you believe that it has almost been 8 years since that day? That day that all of us woke up to the news that we were being attacked? I don’t know about you, but the images and sudden shock are still vivid in my mind. I will never forget how extremely united we all were in the following days. Everyone put everything aside because we knew we had to get through it all together. No one cared about the petty politics, preposterous pork spending in D.C., or silly squabbles among politicians. But here we are, over 7 years later, back to where we were on September 10, 2001. This time it’s worse though, we should know better. We should know what happens when complacency pursues, when slander seizes the day, and when we forget the morals, principles and truths that our entire existence was built on. Do not take this as a political statement but as a cry of hope. A hope that would have every single person who reads this blog not forget what we’re fighting for here. The American dream is not some ideal or way of life to aspire to, it is something millions will truly risk their lives for. There’s a whole island just south of NYC that proves that point if you don’t believe me. There are thousands of soldiers in foreign lands risking their lives to protect exactly what those terrorists attacked. This is not a political statement but a cry for action. If we go back to how it was the day before September 11, 2001, there will be another September 11, only this time it will be worse and there will be no return to what we know as American freedom. The tables have turned already, the game has changed too much and there is more at risk now in the history of the United States then there ever has been before. Regardless of your political stance, whether you lean left or whether you lean right, we have a responsibility as citizens of this amazing country to learn what our politicians stand for, to educate ourselves about the principles our country was founded on, and to understand exactly why history tends to repeat itself. And most importantly, we have an obligation to the future generations of this great nation to make sure we do everything we can to set our system on a path not bound for repeating itself.
There was an article in the church that stood out as we walked through. It was from a newspaper in the days after 9-11. The author spent most of the article writing a letter to those who attacked us. She told them of all the things that we were feeling, all the ways they had hurt us, and that if they were trying to tell us something, we heard them loud and clear. Then she said this…

“If that’s the case, consider the message received and take this message in exchange. You don’t know my people, you don’t know what we’re about, you don’t know what you just started, but you are about to learn.”

I implore all of us to remember exactly what we felt on September 11, 2001. Literally, take a moment right now to think back to that day and recall not the materials that went through your mind, not the daily work schedule that you were on, not the homework you had, not the television show you were going to watch that night, not what the weather was going to be tomorrow…but the people you loved who matter the most to you. If the WTC church reminded me of one thing, it reminded me of how truly proud I am to be an American and that I cannot take for granted, living in a country that allows me to write this very blog, and to remind you, the reader, of what we are exactly up against here. The people who attacked us do not care about our memorials, they do not care about our national deficit, they do not care about our elections or what bill is going through the Senate – they care about one thing: their cause, which does not have freedom in its plans. Hopefully, we’ll all take a little more time to not only stand up for what we believe but to learn why we believe what we believe. God knows they have no clue why or what they believe – they believe it because they’re told to.

From the Road Less Traveled,
Josh & Rachel

NYC Day 4 Highlights: Really tall green statues, seeing the Merril Lynch bull, historic sites, complaint calls (more about this in tomorrow’s blog), good complimentary breakfast!, no rain or need for an umbrella, not standing in line at 5 AM, not getting lost in the subway, emotional reminders, never feeling endangered in the Big Apple.