I noticed a web link on the NPS Daily Digest today of a website produced by the National Park Service to remember September 11, 2001. The web exhibit is a few years old (probably created in 2002), but the content is still meaningful and relevant today. The site, is called:
9.11.01 Remembrance : The Meaning of National Parks in a Time of Crisis
The site highlights the Park Service response that day, and it provides an opportunity to look back and remember. The section called "remembrances" is particularly moving. Apparently, the parks had set up an area for visitors to leave their thoughts about that day. Here is one such thought left at the Statue of Liberty:
This National Park embodies an idea particularly critical at such a time of crisis: Freedom and Liberty for All. All of the world is welcomed and unified by this symbol. All of the immigrants, peoples of the world, throughout history have come and met an idea that creates a solidarity within diversity. This is what is pondered here and give us all strength, inspiration, and a renewal of hope of our highest ideals as Americans.
I'll always associate our National Parks with that day. That morning, I left for a long planned multi-day hike in Mt. Rainier. I'll tell you, I am forever grateful to have had the solace of a wilderness experience during that time.
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