The World Often Watches America

As this 9-11 draws to a close my thoughts return, as they always do on this day, to that day 'When the World Stopped Turning' to go with one of the songs of that day.

Where were you when the world stopped turning?

I was working an interstate rebuild project beneath skies that went silent as the day progressed.

We kept on keeping on, getting the job done even while our tears and fears dried up like mist in the sunshine.

I watched as the people of my crew shook off their initial shock and grew silent, glints of steel coming into all pairs of eyes but one. That one pair of eyes I never saw again after that day which is a different story entirely and I'm not going to tell it here and now.

Nobody had much to say as the day wore on; nobody had to say anything.

What I saw and what I felt on that day, on the job and afterward on the way home, and for quite a while at that time, is what the world has been watching America show over the course of these past days as we've been dealt some harsh blows.

I feel it again, rising as it did on that day when we also took some hard hits.

It is America, wakening and knowing her own strength.

Perhaps it's like desert flowers and will bloom full force only under specific conditions, lying dormant and waiting the rest of the time. When the conditions are met, the result is one you will never forget having witnessed.

Never EVER underestimate We the People of the United States of America is the message that we, without even a moment's thought, send when 'something happens' and we automatically just do what we do. We aren't deliberately setting out to send any messages. We've got other matters on our collective mind. Actions speak louder than words and I needn't even be writing these. I'm obviously not writing them for us, but for the watching world, to make in words the point that America is making without having to say a single thing.

Our politicians and our media mostly play at being American. We the People of the United States of America ARE the United States of America. We are not the extremists on either end of our political charts. We are the enormity of the center. If you have seen footage from 9-11, and just recently from fire and flood, and you fail to grasp what you see, that's on you. As push comes to shove within our borders, We the People of the United States of America are a bit too busy just doing what we do to much care whether anybody is watching or not.

We know you're watching.

We do not care.

What we're caring about right now is one another, and getting the job done no matter what.

Because that's what we do.