9/11/2006

9-11 - The Day a Hard Rain Fell Over the World

(Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park: © 2004 by Michael A. Pancier)

It's a solemn morning infidels as I remember back five years ago. The crazy morning with the news going crazy. The day we all left work to get home to ponder. When our offices were evacuated for fear of crazed islamists crashing planes into our buildings.
It’s been five years since the day that the hard rain fell over New York City. It still angers me. I am irate as to how some memories falter. So many people’s lives turned on their heads in a matter of hours. I am filled with furor over those who refuse to see that evil we face in the world. Rather, they parrot and promulgate the “it’s America’s fault” cop out which was born from the blame America crowd of the 60’s and 70’s whose philosophy is the bastard child of vicarious socialists and leftists. There is evil in the world which clouds judgment and entices folks to succumb to the ideology of hate.

Hundred of years later, we remember the Alamo. Fifty years later, we remember Pearl Harbor. But five years later, do we remember 9-11? Or have we blocked it from our minds.

A hard rain fell over American five years ago today. Take a moment to pray today on this solemn Patriot’s Day. I leave you with the words of Bob Dylan.

A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin',
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems we had similar ideas for images. It is a day that should be remembered and honored.

Anonymous said...

Bob Dylan comes always handy when we have to talk hard times...

Michael Pancier Photography said...

Charlie, if you don't have it, pick up Dylan's Modern Times CD. It's Dylan reborn. In fact, it sounds like Bob Dylan with the blues feel of the early Stones.

Anonymous said...

"History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political advantage." Craw (quote stolen from Keith Olbermann)

Michael Pancier Photography said...

You are correct craw, except that those who cry the loudest these days have their own political agenda as well which may not necessarily be in everyone's best interest. The days of disinterested politicians went by the wayside with Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.

Anonymous said...

I am on my way to get it Sr. Cohiba!