Neddy's Palaver

From Front Porch Flags by Neddy.

FLY THE FLAG on Patriot Day, September 11th!

Would it not be wonderful if on this coming Patriot Day, Monday, September 11th, 2006, an American flag be displayed in front of every home, apartment, office, shop and store in these United States of America? Would it not be wonderful if every individual American made it his or her patriotic duty to display Old Glory on this fifth anniversary of the Attack on America, in honor of the innocent lost lives from that day. As each of us raises our ensign on high it would be a sign to those who are today continuing to endure the pain and of lost loved ones to the War on Terror. Our flags would show our gratitude to those whose lives are at risk everyday at home and abroad to protect our liberty.

In the days, weeks and months following September 11th, 2001, America our country was profusely decorated with American flags as citizens mourned the great loss and stood ready to fight the enemy. Sadly, some of those flags disappeared. Let’s raise them all again and pin them on our lapels to show that we still stand with those our protectors who risk their all each and everyday to protect our country from another such attack. Let’s show our solidarity and our faith in victory over evil by flying our flag, “Old Glory”.

Take a moment to recall your feelings on that somber day when we were under attack. Display an American flag on September 11th, 2006, in remembrance and in resolution of victory over Islamic terrorism for us and for the freedom-loving world. God Bless America.

Johnny Cash’s “Ragged Ole Flag” tells the story of “Old Glory”, from Alabama DAR.

9 + 11 = 20, as in the $20 bill!

“So?” That’s what I said. Someone sent me some facts about the number “40″ that I had never considered before. You know - 40 days and 40 nights, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, 40 winks, etcetera. So I posted a bit about numerology at “Life Begins at Forty”. Now, consider this about the half of 40, which is “20″.

Does the new U.S. $20 Dollar Bill show hidden pictures of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon attacks?

It is a wee bit “creepy” to be shown that the United States $20 bill includes the road-map to the bombings of the Pentagon and the New York Twin Towers on September 11th. Perhaps someone has too much time on his/her hands, or perhaps it is just another one of those unexplained mysteries of life and death.

The Netlore Archive of “About.com” explains it as “Doomsday on a $20 Bill”, then goes on to reveal that if you use your imagination, the images formed by folding any new U.S. bills beginning with the $5 and ending with $100 produces a chronological vignette of the World Trade Center disaster. WOW! Who knew? They describe the feat as just another one of those incredible origami tricks. And spooky too, as we see that the name of our number one enemy is in plain sight on the $20 greenback.

Whatever! We will file this one under “Apocrypha Now!” - the sightings, notes and updates. Check out “Cao’s Blog” for an instruction manual as to how you too can perform this mysterious folding map of doom trick on the new $20 bill. However, all of these demonstrations have skipped over the most mystical fold of all - folded down the middle lengthwise, with a few more diagonal folds, that $20 dollar bill becomes a flying missile - a paper airplane!

Linked at Basil’s Blog Picnic.

Could save us from evil.
Should we have confidence in the government’s ability to deal with another mass national crisis such as September 11th? Since then, new and more sophisticated technologies have been implemented and the Department of Homeland Security has been created. When the next man-made or natural disaster arrives on our shores, will the American people be ready? If the recent example of the uncoordinated response to Hurricane Katrina is what we can expect, we will be dangerously unprepared. Is there something that can be done to prepare the nation immediately, not in a year or two?

Back in 2002, entrepreneur Charles Jennings decided that emergency crisis responsiveness on the national, regional and local level was barely adequate. After meetings and testing with emergency preparedness officials in Portland, Oregon, Mr. Jennings founded a nonprofit technology consortium; the Regional Alliances for Network and Information Security (RAINS). Engineers working for RAINS were able to create an emergency communications product that goes by the name of Connect & Protect. Connect & Protect is now deployed by government first responders, schools and private security firms.

Russell Shaw writes in “Here’s a private-public sector solution to our disaster communications problem” of an interview with Charles Jennings about this life-saving project:

The central problem with emergency response is that we still rely too much on government to do it. There is no “Big Brother” ready and equipped to save us. … we have developed is a system that redefines the concept of “Emergency Response Agency” - from simply government to something much broader that includes hospitals, schools, building owners, private security firms, and so on. The dirty little secret about emergency responders is that there simply are not enough of them to manage extreme disasters. Given that fact, if you are on your own in an emergency, and are called upon to make life-saving decisions, you would hope to have the best possible set of facts available to you to make that decision. We help provide the basis for such a decision.

Four years ago today, September 20th, 2001, President George Bush said “Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen. . . . What is at stake is not just America’s freedom. This is the world’s fight. This is civilization’s fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.”

Headwaters of the War on Terror

Tracked at Mudville Gazette’s Open Post.

About three years ago, in late 2002, the U.S. Navy announced that it would be flying the flag known as the ‘First Navy Jack‘ which pictures a rattlesnake slithering across a field of thirteen red and white stripes, with the motto DONT TREAD ON ME. This is different from the ‘Gadsden Flag‘, with which it is often confused. That ensign depicts a coiled rattlesnake on a yellow background. The naval ships were to fly the old time ensign in accordance with the U.S. Navy declaration: “The temporary substitution of this Jack represents an historic reminder of the nation’s and Navy’s origin and will to persevere and triumph.”

Sunday, September 1, 2002 ~ U.S. Navy Revives Old Rattlesnake Flag, ‘Don’t Tread On Me,’ To Fly On All Vessels The U.S. Navy is ordering its fleet to fly the defiant Don’t Tread on Me rattlesnake flag aboard all its vessels to emphasize America’s determination in the war on terror, reports TIME magazine on Monday. Navy Secretary Gordon England’s directive said the resurrected flag “represents an historic reminder of the nation’s and Navy’s origin and will to persevere and triumph.“

Not only does this antique emblem show defiance to our enemies today, it reminds all of us of the courage and determination of our revolutionary forebears who created it. They were but a ragtag army of local militiamen when they impertinately admonished the world’s greatest army at that time, to “get out of the way, or else“!

The famous American author E.B. White (1899-1985) described New York City as the “capital of everything“. Although he never saw the city under attack, many years prior to September 11th, 2001, he wrote “In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer who might loose the lightning, New York must hold a steady, irresistible charm. … This race–this race between the destroying planes and the struggling Parliament of Man–it sticks in all our heads, … The city at last perfectly illustrates both the universal dilemma and the general solution, this riddle in steel and stone is at once the perfect target and the perfect demonstration of nonviolence, of racial brotherhood, this lofty target scraping the skies and meeting the destroying planes halfway, home of all people and all nations, capital of everything.”

Linked at Mudville Gazette’s Open Post.

Lord, take me where
you want me to go;
Let me meet who
you want me to meet;
Tell me what
you want me to say, and
Keep me out of your way.

—Fr. Mychal Judge, O.F.M.
Chaplain, New York Fire Department
Copyright ©2001 Holy Name Province
Graphic from Mary’s Little Lamb