Remembering 9/11 – Man’s inhumanity to Man

Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped away into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other
That we are still
Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way you always used
Put no difference into your tone
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed
At the little jokes we always enjoyed together
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was
Let it be spoken without effort
Without the ghost of a shadow in it
Life means all that it ever meant
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolute unbroken continuity
What is death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind
Because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner
All is well.

(Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral)


My thoughts today are for every Country who lost a loved one, friend, working colleague and especially towards the citizens of America whose casualties were so high (with Britain coming second) and my prayers are for the heroic men and women who survived – whether they were part of the emergency services or not –but whose selfless actions on that fateful day (probably mostly remaining unrecorded) saved so many lives.

One man who saved numerous lives and sadly at the cost of his own was Rick Rescorla, who born in Hayle in Cornwall ( the birthplace of my grandparents ) who will be remembered at church services and at his own memorial today in his town of birth.

This year the shops in my area will not hold a few minutes silence, transport and vehicles will not stop and neither will people in the streets and thus 9/11 passes by now as if it was just another day in the year. But so many of us remember and so many of us take time to spend a few moments in quiet contemplation and to send a prayer or two for all the people who we never had met or ever have the opportunity to meet or simply get to know or would ever be likely to, but whose horrific deaths and the manner of their untimely demise reverberated around the world.

So, time marches on and the world goes about its daily routines but we do remember you America, and the thoughts and prayers of the world are with you today.

A good time to see the Budweiser advert that was shown just once in the USA and never was shown beyond their shores.