Flag and Faith

Our Flag and Faith

It dawned like any other mid-winter day in upstate New York. It was snowing and it had snowed throughout the night and would probably snow the rest of the day, too. As I rested in bed waiting for the little ones to wake up, I listened to a narrator’s voice reading a story about time travel. Through my head set, I heard the occasional thrumming of a helicopter. It wasn’t part of the taped story, but I didn’t give it a second thought.
During breakfast, the boys were their usual quarrelsome selves, noisy, boisterous and full of confidence. I heard the helicopter thrumming over head. I hoped whoever the Mercy Flight had plucked up from harms way would make it.
Today was a mandatory bath morning, so my kidlets could choose a bubble bath or regular bath along with the usual array of measuring cups, spray bottles, little boats and toy critters for tub-time fun. The helicopter thrumming was unmistakable even over the noise of the bathtub faucet.
I estimated that the helicopter flew over head about every half-hour. I’d heard the television news reports about being on orange alert for a terrorist attack. I began to be concerned about living within the ten-mile radius of the Ginna Nuclear Plant. It’s northern border is a wide open expanse of water . A foreign country just north of that. Perhaps these were neither random maneuvers nor the Mercy Flight but fly-bys with a purpose.
The mini-school bus came to take my 4-year old to pre-school, my husband left for work and, then finally, my toddler and I laid down for a nap after our lunch. As I drifted into sleep, the helicopter droned passed the end of my street, along Route 441.
Abruptly, my house shook violently as trees crashed every where, shattering windows and shredding the plastic we’d duct taped over them. I woke and rushed to a north facing window. A huge, black column of smoke, debris and heat rose above the orchard and homes. I ran to my toddler’s bedroom to scoop up the screaming, terrified child and heard the phone ring. I hoped that call meant the Emergency Preparedness people were, indeed prepared and coming to transport us to safety.
The phone jangled again in my ear, ending my terrifying dream. It seemed so real. My heart was pounding. I felt cold and petrified. What if it had been real?
I suspect this is what terrorism is all about. The enemy wants you to be so un-nerved and paranoid that you can’t function normally. Fear is a very real emotion that is quite hard to subdue. It can permeate every fiber in your body and daily life, totally disabling you, if you let it.
We need to persevere, though. Go about our daily lives, while at the same time, we mount an awareness and preparedness campaign.
Cornucopia has just finished a series of Good Citizen essays written by high school students in Wayne County, sponsored by the Col. Wm. Prescott Chapter of the NSDAR. These essays are full of love and respect for our United States of America. These young people look to us for leadership — even amidst their bluster and rhetoric. Let’s not let them or ourselves down.
Fly our American Flag and keep the faith.
( This article originally appeared March 6, 2003)
Patriotic Cornucopia: A collection of Essays from Cornucopia by Kate Chamberlin Published in the Wayne County STAR Newspaper, 1994-2004
Copyright © 2010 by Kate Chamberlin, All Rights Reserved.