Resolve to live free must not fade

A Spectrum, by Lou Major

It's been 37 days since Sept. 11. Up to now, I have been publicly silent on the issue of that heinous day. You and I have read and heard volumes of reaction, statements, proclamations, opinions on the mass murders which took place on Sept. 11.

Irony or not, Sept. 11 and Dec. 7 share the ignominy of being two of the ultimate horrors in world

history.

As a child of 11 years of age, I sat on the floor of my parents' house in Jefferson Parish that Sunday morning almost 60 years ago. I had just come home from Sunday school and listened intently in front of our old Atwater-Kent standup radio as our president told us that the empire of Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. It was, indeed, a day of infamy that will live forever.

Our nation and its people girded for war throughout the world. Our young men and woman went to battle and saved our country. Many thousands died in the quest for victory. They had stood in line to volunteer to go get the enemy -- the Germans and Italians in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific. Those who came home lived with their scars, physical and mental, for the rest of their lives, but they had brought evil to its knees and dragged it into the dirt.

Then came other wars in spite of the wish that the big one was to have been the war to end all wars -- Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War. We responded, did what we had to do, with varying degrees of success and purpose.

But through it all, Americans stood shoulder to shoulder -- for the most part. Vietnam will always remain a social and psychological struggle for America to remember. But it happened and the chains that bind Americans together withstood the push and pull.

Another tyrant named Saddam Hussein emerged across the pages of world history and tried to make his mark. He did not understand America and its commitment to lead the world to be a better, safe place for all mankind.

Once more, our leaders sent our young to war on foreign soil to protect freedom, as well as our own interests, which are indisputably global and will always remain so.

The world's new Tyrant No. 1 is the misguided Osama bin Laden, holed up somewhere in the mountains of a place most Americans never heard of until 37 days ago. We knew the Russians were fighting the Afghans for a while but had no idea who was the good guy and who was the bad guy.

Osama bin Laden has declared that America will never live in peace. The sad part of it all is that he is right. We will never be able to feel the peace of mind and soul that we had before Sept. 11, 2001, because we now know that our invincible nation can be attacked. We are subject to continuing terrorism for the rest of time. Our leaders will put in mountains of layers of security and safeguards, but it can never be 100- percent effective. Never.

It never was -- but we didn't know it.

On that Tuesday morning 37 days ago, we found out.

We will have to live with the knowledge that terror is among us. We do not know where. But we never did. We cannot run and hide in the mountains like bin Laden. We will, somehow, through our tears and anguish, try to return to our normalcy, but normalcy in itself will now be of a different hue.

But return we must.

Our tears have been shed.

Our mourning continues.

But our resolve to live our lives as free Americans with an indomitable spirit must not fade with the passage of time. We must answer the call once more. It is our heritage. It is our birthright. When duty calls, in whatever shape it must take, we must stand United.

After all, that's our name.