A Fitting Tribute to Flight 93

I never had a chance to meet you, and if things had been different, I never would have know your names, or the heroism that you keep deep inside you. On September 11, 2001, you overcame your own certainty of death to save fellow Americans on the ground, following the firmly understated battle cry, "let's roll."

Because of your bravery in the face of certain death, we have both of these monuments:

Without you, one of these symbols of America would not now be standing, and dozens, if not hundreds more families would spend anguished holidays with empty chairs where loved ones should be. You gave the greatest and most personal of sacrifices, dying like lions, or sheepdogs defending the flock.

If I were asked what a fitting monument to your sacrifice might be, I would not have selected a mixed message in the field where you died, but two simple, solid tributes, one the grounds at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, and the other at the Capital Building.

They might read:

It would then list the names of the heroes of Flight 93.

* * *

These heroes died defending Americans from Islamic terrorism. There was no embrace, there was no bonding, and no contemplation. The was a valiant, violent struggle to determine the fate of those on the plane and the fate of those on the ground, and in that struggle, the boys and girls next door faced the very best operatives Islamic terrorism had throw at them, and they triumphed.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton said it well when she said:

"As I look around this field, there is little that we can do or say or build that can be equal to the courage and sacrifice of the heroes who died on Flight 93, two years ago today," Norton said. "Our hearts tell of a need to honor and memorialize their heroism and to distinguish and identify the importance of this site and what happened here for future generations."

update: Norton apparently remembered her words.