PUP SUN I T E .ORG | 24 Orchestra performed “God Bless America” written by Irving Berlin. President Bush continued, “On Tuesday, our country was attacked with deliberate and massive cruelty. We have seen the images of fire and ashes and bent steel…War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder.” Bush told the nation, “They have attacked America because we are freedom’s home and defender. And the commitment of our Fathers is now the calling of our time.” Julia Ward Howe’s, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” sung by the congregation, concluded the service. Many Americans turned to music in an effort to make sense of the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest since Pearl Harbor. Many well-known musicians sought to “console and inspire,” including Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Faith Hill, Neil Young, Billy Joel, Mariah Carey, Bon Jovi, Paul Simon, Celine Dion, and Willie Nelson to name a few. Neil Young wrote “Let’s Roll,” a song memorializing the final words of Todd Beamer as he and others fought back against the hijackers, resulting in United Airlines flight 93 crashing into the Pennsylvania countryside sixty miles southeast of Pittsburgh. I know I said I love you, I know you know it’s true, I’ve got to put the phone down, And do what we got to do, Ones standing in the aisle way, Two more at the door, We’ve got to get inside there, Before they kill some more, Time is running out, Let’s roll, Time is running out, Let’s roll. The heavy, serious beat of the music reflects upon the intensity of the moment as we listen to Young’s emotional, unforgettable song. Some musical artists wrote songs of faith, hope, and love, while others were more warlike, martial, plain-spoken, and provocative, anthems of anger, not anguish. Bruce Springsteen focused on firemen and law enforcement who had laid their lives down for others. Springsteen reflected, “The picture I could not let go was of the emergency workers going up the stairs as others rushed down to safety.” He continued, “The sense of duty, the courage, ascending into…what? If you love life, or any part of it, the depth of their sacrifice is unthinkable and incomprehensible. Yet what they left behind was intangible.” He took President Bush’s signature phrase, “Into the fire” and included it in his 2002 Grammy Award-winning album “The Rising,” a tribute to those fallen heroes. Springsteen’s masterful album shows us what and how we were feeling, but simply could not express. One reviewer said, “He gives us a modern-day hymnal with this body of work, with words and music to grieve 9/11, along with a sense of community that we’re going to get through it.” Despite the influx of a patriotic spirit that enveloped our nation post 9/11, there was communitythoughts
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