A Long Walk: By Jerry Bauer. 9/16/01

I took a walk today. 4 miles. It's part of a Sunday
routine of mine. It's a beautiful day. Sunny and
somewhat cool for this time of year in Georgia.


The walk winds through residential neighborhoods. Kind
of quiet. The occasional other walker or jogger passes
by. Couldn't help but notice the number of flags
flying from the homes I passed. I saluted every one of
them; probobly a hundred or more.

It took an hour or so. When you're alone like this for
a period of time you think of a lot of things, but
understandably on this Sunday my thoughts were on the
events of 9-11-01 and what followed.

My God, we're at war. I thought of places like Iwo,
Tarawa, Okinawa, Utah and Omaha beaches, Anzio, Chosen
Reservoir, Pork Chop Hill, DaNang, Hue, Kuwait, Iraq
and how brave the men and women involved in those
events must have been. They put themselves in harms
way to protect us and our freedom. Tens of thousands
of them never experienced the survival of the freedom
they fought for.

Over 5000 men, women, children, black , white,
hispanic, christian, jew, muslim, all innocent
victims, dead, simply because they were at work on
time or in the wrong place. I thought of the brave
firemen, policemen, emt's, and volunteer citizens who
entered those towering inferno's trying to save people
but ended up victims themselves. What they did was
really no different than what the soldiers, sailors,
airmen and marines did at Iwo or Omaha Beach.They
didn't have to be there. They chose to be there. They
made the ultimate sacrifice and we can't ever forget
them. My heart grieves for thier loved ones. Thier
burden is the greatest.

I couldn't help but think about how fortunate I am to
be an American. I'm also very angry at those madmen
who did this to us. My marine corps fatigues don't fit
me any more but if they did and they would have me,
I,m gone. Better me than a young man with a family who
needs him, or our grandchildren. Oh, I know they don't
need me. They'd politely refuse and tell me they
appreciate my offer. I think every man my age reading
this will feel the same way.

Finally, I thought about New York. A lot of people
like to bash the big apple, it's an easy target
sometimes. Unfortunately, most opinions of NY are
based on how its portrayed by Hollywood or whatever
bad they see going on in the city on the evening news.
Problem is that whatever bad goes on in NY goes on in
Kenosha or Albany, GA or wherever you are. It's just
easier to point to NY's problems than it is to clean
up our own back yards.

We've all now seen the real NY. The only difference
between NY and the rest of us is that they've
experienced war first hand in our beloved USA. I would
only hope that if the NY experience had happened
anywhere else that the response would have been as
courageous. I think we're all New Yorkers now and
always will be.

I love you all. God bless America. Jerry B