The VigilanceVoice

  VigilanceVoice.com  
Thursday... February 14, 2002—Ground Zero Plus 156

  
 Valentine's Day Is For Loving--
Not For Being Terrorized Again
by
Cliff McKenzie
Editor, New York City Combat Correspondent News 

        GROUND ZERO, New York City, Feb 14-- Valentines Day, 2002.   It is a day we put Terror to the side--never longer than an arm's reach--and turn our attention to those we love. 

       Some will find their hearts are empty this day--the vacancy created by the horror of Nine Eleven and the loss of loved ones.
       Others, hopefully, will let their hearts fill with love rather than remorse at the loss of their loved ones.   They will know their Spirits of Vigilance stand ever present, an arm's length away, watching, protecting, remembering to remember.
       With the passing of any loved one we can either mourn or rejoice.   If we remember them as ones we loved, who cared about us, who were devoted to us and our lives--then we need to rejoice in the memory.    It would be what they would want.   It would be an act of respect.
       Mourning the loss of our loved ones means the shaft of Terrorism is still stuck in our guts, and its poisons still flow through us.   The Terrorists would want us to mourn.  They would want us to feel powerless, that life had been cruel, selfish, uncaring because it snatched from us a husband, wife, parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, son or daughter,  friend, lover or fiancée.
over the loss of our most precious commodities in life--the ones closest to us.
      Terrorism isn't the act, but the residual of the act it preys upon--the fear, the intimidation, the remorse, the grieving.   Morning to a Terrorist is salt in the wound of its victim's loved ones.   They gleefully rejoice when it is rubbed in, when the sadness of loss rears its ugly head and its fetid breath exhales the agony of loss one more time upon the scar tissues of the soul.

       Rejoicing in the boundless, beautiful memories of those who sacrificed their lives to remind us to always be vigilant--Semper Vigilantes--is the key to countering Terrorism's fallout, some hundred and fifty-seven days later.
       Surely, the hole left by the absence of a loved one can never be filled.  But it can be laced with flowers and rainbows rather than weeds and rocks.   
       Valentines Day is about Love, not hate or angry or remorse or feeling victimized.   It is about rejoicing in the Love that was, and, if you believe as I, the Love that is.
       For those with heavy hearts this day, try turning to the World Trade Center and gaze carefully at its epicenter.    See if you can pick out of the skyline your loved one, smiling at you, arms outstretched, reminding you that he or she has not left--that they stand as Sentinels of Vigilance watching out for you, loving you in the light of death.

    Go To Feb. 13 - - Wall of Fear and Terror