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We must continue to stand for freedom

By Ray Allegrezza, Editor in chief -- Furniture Today, September 16, 2001

Last week's heinous terrorist attacks that destroyed a portion of the Pentagon and toppled the World Trade Center did more than assault those respective landmarks. They altered the landscapes of our lives.

Like most Americans, I spent the evening of Sept. 11 in front of my TV set faced with the impossible task of trying to make sense out of a series of malicious, senseless acts of aggression, the likes of which I have never witnessed in my life.

As someone who had commuted in and out of Manhattan for more than 15 years, the notion that the World Trade Center is gone is beyond belief, despite the endless reruns of the burning towers, the second jet plowing into the second tower and the subsequent footage of those massive building suddenly crashing down.

Similarly, I will be forever haunted by the news footage showing people jumping out of 80th floor windows to certain death, and of dazed, wounded and soot-covered survivors being led away from the rubble.

But as the coverage continued, amid the torn steel beams and shattered glass, I saw something else. I got a glimpse of the spirit of America. I saw it in the grim but determined faces of the rescue workers who selflessly risked their lives in order to save others.

I saw, amid the chaos, flames and soot, a spirit of unspoken cooperation and resolve. And this sense of solidarity was evident not only at the crash sites.

At one point, the network I was watching switched to a gathering of politicians — Democrats and Republicans singing, as with one voice, "God Bless America."

Other clips showed people all across America lining up to give blood.

If Desert Storm brought us closer together, we seem to be of one mind right now, united not only in name but in heart.

If the goal of the perpetrators was to use those hijacked jets to bring us to our knees, they made a major mistake. If anything, they not only woke up a sleeping giant; this time they angered him.

America has this wonderful quirk in its collective psyche. We are at our best when facing our worst-case scenarios. Terrorism on this scale, here or anywhere in the world, is a worst-case scenario and one that no human being should have to tolerate.

I am convinced that if we take an intractable antiterrorist stand, when all is said and done our country will emerge from this tragedy better, stronger and more unified.

This country was founded on freedom. We have an obligation to keep it free. We owe it to all those who paid for that freedom with their lives.

We owe it to the victims of last week's tragedy. And we owe it to our children and our children's children.

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