11/11/01 12:25 AM

Writing late at night on the last day of total freedom I have in a while. My folks have been visiting my sister for the last 5 days or so and I've had the house to myself. It's been nice and quiet, and other than a visit from Evil James today, it's been relatively uneventful.

As I write this we're about 26 minutes into the 2nd month after the attacks of 911. It's kind of strange how the world has changed, yet really, we're still going on.

People are still afraid to fly. That really gets me. When I went on vacation the other week I didn't fly but that wasn't due to fear of flying, if it were feasible to fly I would have, but it just wasn't in the cards. There's no real reason not to fly now, safety is at an all time high, but the fear just clings and the industry is hurting.

People are afraid to open the mail. The nuts started coming out a week after the bombing. They paused just enough to get over the initial shock and then go back to being idiots. Now to open mail it's a matter of "is opening this mail going to mean getting sick?" I'm really worried because I sent out mail this morning and forgot to put a return address on it. I'm hoping to goodness gracious that someone doesn't throw it out because of that, or I'd have one very angry credit card company wondering where my payment was.

People are flying the American flag just about as much as in the days after 911. Going on mystery shops I see it a lot. Remote country spots where guys have nailed 2x4's to the back of their pickup trucks and stapled the flag proudly to those boards. People with more flags on their cars than I've seen in my life. Half of me wishes that I owned stock in a flag making company now. I'd be rich. That's for sure.

People are worried about the war. But we don't actually see the war. Sure it's a news byte on CNN from time to time, but we're not on the front lines yet. It's not another gulf war where it was front page news or on CNN 24/7. It's going on in the background and hopefully we're making gains on bringing the people who did 911 to justice.

People know that the economy is still in the toilet. The $300 refund checks (except mine) went in the bank. Microsoft got off scott free in their DOJ case because the DOJ decided that hurting microsoft would be bad for the economy. Layoffs are at such high levels right now ... higher than even in years before a lot of the readers of this strip were born. That's very scary and I'm watching my own job and being thankful that they haven't decided to can us yet.

People still have hope though. The world series went on and we saw a spectacular series with the Diamondbacks fighting "fate" to show that it was the better team, not "destiny," that controlled the series. The Yanks will be back, but the 'backs were the better team this year. Those incredible Chicago Bears won two games back to back in overtime to make a very special friend of mine do cartwheels and backflips. Children still laugh, people still hold each other close and enjoy quiet moments, babies are still born, people still die, and in some ways life is just like it was before the events of the last two months.

They didn't break our spirit, they didn't break us as a people, and that's very important. We'll get through this because as a people we were united by these events.

So on this day to the families and the friends and the loved ones of those who were hurt, or killed, or remain missing from that terrible day, our hearts go out. Our hopes go out too.

To those who died we wish peace and safe passage through the roads that they travel on beyond this life.

To all of you, I wish a beautiful Sunday.

On that note, be safe.

k9

11:39 AM

Just sharing an AP article that put a smile on my face. Apologies to the AP for reprinting w/o permission.

k9

South Carolina Children Repay 134-Year-Old Debt of Kindness
Money Will Be Used to Replace One of the Dozens of NYC Fire Trucks Destroyed in the Sept. 11 Attacks


By PAGE IVEY
.c The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (Nov. 11) - Two years after the Civil War, with much of this city still in ruins, some of the bitterness over the conflict was put aside by a single gesture: New York firefighters collected pennies to buy Columbia a fire truck.

So overwhelmed was former Confederate Col. Samuel W. Melton that he made a promise on behalf of South Carolina's capital city to return the kindness ''should misfortune ever befall the Empire City.''

After 134 years, that day has finally come, and the children of Columbia are honoring that pledge.

They're collecting pennies at football games, holding bake sales and selling T-shirts in a drive that's closing in on the $350,000 needed to replace one of the dozens of New York City fire trucks destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

''It's kinda neat,'' said Amanda Collins, a seventh-grader at White Knoll Middle School. ''They gave us a fire truck and now we're giving them one.''

But the idea started from a lesson in giving, not history.

White Knoll Principal Nancy Turner and teachers were trying to find a tangible way their students could help after the attacks. The children were too young for a blood drive, and no one really liked the idea of sending money to a large national fund.

Once they decided to buy New York a fire truck, hundreds of students immediately began collecting money toward what seemed a noble, if impossible, goal.

That was until Turner stumbled across records of New York's long-ago gift while doing research about the cost and what type of truck to buy.

With that historical twist, it was easy to get city leaders and South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges on board. Columbia Fire Chief John Jansen, a New York City native, also enlisted his firefighters in the effort renamed ''South Carolina Remembers.''

The donations have poured in, ranging from a $1 bill in a plain white envelope from California to a pledge of $100,000 from a New York philanthropist with South Carolina ties.

''When I was growing up in Columbia, Mama always said you need to return a kindness,'' one donor wrote. ''I know she'd be as glad as I am to be part of this wonderful thank you gesture.''

---

In 1867, Columbia was a beaten, poverty-stricken city, still recovering from a devastating fire two years earlier in the closing months of the Civil War.

Historians aren't sure exactly what caused the Feb. 17, 1865, blaze, which broke out during the occupation of Union Gen. William T. Sherman, but the destruction was clear.

''Something akin to a firestorm devoured over 36 blocks, about one-third of the city,'' wrote historian Walter Edgar in his book ''South Carolina: A History.'' ''When dawn broke, Columbia could see nothing but a forest of broken chimneys and piles of rubble.''

The New York Firemen's Association would later learn that South Carolina's capital had lost most of its firefighting equipment in the war and was using bucket brigades to douse flames.

The New York firemen, many of them former Union soldiers, raised $5,000 - mostly in pennies - and put a hose reel wagon on a steamship in March 1867. That ship sank off North Carolina's Outer Banks, so the firefighters took up yet another collection and sent a second hose reel wagon on its way in June.

On June 28, 1867, New York Firemen's Association President Henry Wilson formally presented the gift at Columbia's Sydney Park, in the shadow of Arsenal Hill where Confederate ammunition had been made.

''We call upon our fellow citizens of the two great sections to emulate our example, and thus hasten a restoration . . . of our once beautiful and still united national fabric,'' Wilson said in his speech.

''These noble efforts of yours,'' Columbia fire Capt. J.J. Mackey responded, ''must remain forever green in our memory.''

Added Confederate Col. Melton: ''The bravest can soonest forget and forgive, and none but the brave can so quickly transform the rage of the conflict into the beautiful sentiment of brotherly kindness and peace.''

---

White Knoll's Turner, who plans to announce the $350,000 goal has been reached later this month, hopes the drive casts a positive light on Columbia after the drawn-out fight over the removal of the Confederate flag from atop the Statehouse and its reputation for anti-Northern sentiment. Six bronze stars on the Capitol still mark the scars left by Sherman's mortar shells.

In notes to the students, donors told personal stories connecting them to loved ones lost in the terrorist attacks on the trade center, to family members who were firefighters and, in one case, to Confederate soldiers.

They sent $20 found on the street or money they won in competition at the South Carolina State Fair. One donor sent money that ''was a pay back for something that happened several years ago. Since I do not fully believe I am owed it, I wish to put it to good use.''

The largest single donation is coming from New York attorney and philanthropist William Murray. The University of South Carolina graduate has pledged to kick in $100,000 after the students raise the first $254,000. An anonymous donor gave $50,000.

One of the most unforgettable donations, however, came with a letter from Russell Siller of Rockville Centre, N.Y. Siller's brother, Stephen, was part of the elite firefighter force Squad 1 and died on Sept. 11.

''At a time like this, when the whole nation is still mourning its loss, what a powerful and poetic message your efforts send to all of us,'' Siller wrote. ''I am proud that New York's bravest sent you a fire truck in your city's time of need. ... To think that you would honor a pledge made so many years ago! ...

''The new fire truck will become a symbol for your love for your country, and for New York's bravest.''

AP-ES-11-08-01 1708EST

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