To Our Readers
TUESDAY began badly and just kept getting incredibly worse. In Hawaii, telephones rang in the dark. We got out of bed, but there was no waking up from the nightmare. On Tuesday
America awoke but our
nightmare continuesIt was like a dream of falling. Each time we reached the ground, it opened up again.
A hijacking became four hijackings. One airplane crashed; then it was four.
While we tried to process the incomprehensible television image of the north tower of the World Trade Center in flames, the south tower exploded.
In an instant we knew that this was no accident -- it was, as the president said, an "apparent terrorist attack."
Minutes later, a third plane hit the Pentagon and confirmed an evil intent.
We watched people leap from windows a hundred stories up to escape the flames. We thought, this is as bad as it can get. Little did we know.
Even after the attack, the towers stood firm, dwarfing the fires. It never crossed our minds that they would collapse into clouds of billowing dust and piles of grisly rubble. The twin implosions consumed the lives of thousands of New Yorkers, tragically including almost 400 police and firemen bent on rescue.
They told us 266 people died in the airplanes and another 126 on the ground at the Pentagon, but only when the mayor of New York ordered 6,000 body bags did we fathom the toll -- 4,763 were missing.
More buildings collapsed and others will be razed. Would the burning, bleeding and destruction ever end, we wondered.
The hand of the terrorist triggered unimaginable destruction leaving us glued to televisions and radios, waiting for the next horror, latest body count, the next tragic story of loss, uncertainty and fear.
But soon we also heard stories of heroism, escape, love, pride and courage. Our national confusion evolved into declarations of war, commitments of billions and expressions of resolve.
Now, the world's terrorists had better heed the hymn of an America at war:
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword."
John Flanagan is editor and publisher of the Star-Bulletin.
To reach him call 529-4748, fax to 529-4750, send
e-mail to publisher@starbulletin.com or write to
500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.
