... In freedom and without fear

I came across this collection of powerful 9/11 images yesterday while pondering the whole business, as those of us who remember that morning tend to do.

The images are set against Disturbed's 2015 version of an old and familiar Simon & Garfunkel song, recalled most vividly from reel-to-reel and midnight drunks in Saigon hotel rooms in a place and time where the world stopped turning (Alan Jackson's line) with some frequency.

Asked one time about the meaning of Paul Simon's song, Art Garfunkel replied that it reflected, "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other."

And then there's this, part of a "Prayer on the Anniversary of Sept. 11" by Unitarian Universalist clergyman Gary Kowalski:

We remember all the heroes and heroines of that day,
the firefighters and emergency responders
who demonstrated such courage in the midst of crisis.

We remember the innocents who perished,
Our friends and neighbors and the thousands of strangers
Who were victims of random violence.

We remember knowing for a moment
That we were connected to each precious life,
To the survivors and to those who died,
With a bond of shared humanity
That the forces of hate could never break.

We remember the voices that counseled peace
Even as our nation prepared for war,

And we raise our voices still against fanaticism
In all its forms,
Against jihad, against militarism, against racism and religious intolerance,

Praying that the conflagration of that day
Might even now cast a more gentle light,
Leading to a future where all people can live in freedom
And without fear.