3000 flags at Kennesaw Mountain for 9/11 victims: it is all so personal - WXIA-TV
COBB COUNTY, Ga. -- This... is personal.
A ten year old wound -- still fresh.
And like a balm, large American flags begin to appear, beneath the brilliant, morning blue, on poles carried by volunteers, gliding gently, quietly, one by one, across the cool, damp, green field at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, along old U.S. Highway 41, next to the visitors' center.
"It's a very patriotic moment," says one of the volunteer flag-bearers, Jonathan Stubblefield, taking in the amazing sight.
The quiet slowly gives way to soft talk and laughter of families, mostly, and friends --
happy and proud to be carrying all these flags to this peaceful field of honor, planting them in a precise grid that stretches up and down the rolling terrain.
This once-empty field is suddenly a forest.
Three thousand flags, almost taking flight in the breezes, salute 3,000 lives lost under that brilliant, morning blue ten years ago.
"Every one of these flags represents a life, you know, that was taken by the terrorist acts," Jonathan Stubblefield says as if he needs more time to absorb the enormity of what he is seeing.
He and his young family planted one of the flags -- planting a seed in his small boys, he hopes.
"You want 'em to always remember the event, and be able to be real compassionate toward other human beings, and patriotic, and love their country."
Planting a seed in everyone, he hopes.
"If everybody comes together, hopefully we can prevent these things from happening in the future."
The Marietta Kiwanis Club raised $35,000 to buy the 3,000 flags, and raised more than $5,000 on top of that to stage the entire, week-long event.
"It gives us a chance to reflect," says another father, Garfield Reddick.
Reddick and his eight year old daughter Lauren, who is here in uniform -- she is wearing her Girl Scout uniform -- discuss that Tuesday morning a decade ago, as they stroll amidst all the tall flagpoles, the flags unfurling above their heads.
Then they talk about what life will be like a decade from now.
"I think we should keep fighting for our nation," Lauren tells 11Alive's Jon Shirek when he asks her what the 9/11 flags mean to her.
And Lauren likes the future she sees.
"I feel sorry for whoever died and I hope everybody feels alive and feels that America is the best nation you can think of."
A wound lasting ten years --
healing slowly across a nation filled this weekend with tributes and memorials.
And just beneath one of the flags, someone has hung the small photograph of a woman. The photo sways in the breezes, too.
This is always ... so personal.
On Saturday, September 17, the Marietta Kiwanis Club will sell the flags to the public for $20 each, hoping to recover the club's costs and have enough left over for the club's various charities, including scholarships. The sale will be at midday, at Marietta First United Methodist Church, which is at Whitlock and the loop, just west of the square. For more information, go to the 911 Field of Flags website, 911fieldofflags.com/ .
11 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF68zytp_0gfcVHVViSPfPP8b-shA&url=http://www.11alive.com/news/article/204930/166/3000-flags-at-Kennesaw-Mountain-for-911-victims--it-is-all-so-personal
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
