It just got personal . . .

It just got

personal . . .

The images that we've seen

of last week's events have horrified, stunned and enraged us. Images that

my mind is still having trouble accepting as anything other than special

effects from a Hollywood movie. The enormity of this is incomprehensible

to most of us. Probably more so to those of us who have seen or been in

these phenomenal structures.

I was lucky enough to have

an uncle who was the construction foreman for the North Tower when it

was being built. I stood on the rooftop platform, where the television

transmitter mast was to be installed, when the top 50 floors of that great

tower were nothing more than steel girders. The enormity of the achievement

made in erecting those tributes to American engineering and determination

simply can not be understated. I'm not sure that I will be able to accept

their absence from New York's skyline until I look for myself and see

that they're no longer there.

I was finally able to confirm

that I have no immediate family who were involved in the incident. But

I have a friend who lost nine people, family and friends. My deepest sympathies

go out to him and his family. As time goes on, I fear that many of us

will find that we knew people who didn't survive this calamity.

People who know me know that

I am capable of great love, patience and understanding. However, political

correctness and a propensity for turning the other cheek are not personality

faults with which I am burdened. I've long maintained that we put our

national [courage] on the shelf many years ago, while we attempted to

project to the world the image that we were a "Kinder, Gentler Nation."

It's time to take them down from that shelf, dust them off and strap them

back on.

The sense of security that

we as Americans share as we go about our daily lives is not something

that I am prepared to relinquish. And if we have to lower ourselves to

some jackal's level for a period of time to ensure that future safety,

I am prepared to admit that I can be reduced to a rage-blinded animal

to accomplish the task.

Bernie Ortmann

Peachtree City