Liberty Personified

The scene is breathtaking. From the eyes of the Satue of Liberty, it is early sunrise over New York City. A rolling fog still blankets the sleepy island. As the cautious sun peeks its head out from under the blanket, its rays spill through the many prisms on the island and splash across the harbor to greet Lady Liberty. The old church bells strike six o' clock, and Lady Liberty begins to sense liveliness about the city. The old bells usually greet her with the cheerful, glowing sound of a new day; but this morning, she is greeted with a harsh, monotonous death toll. The sound of those old rusty bells fades, but the ringing grows more loudly and more deathly in her mind.

As the fog dissipates, the sun reaches her first glory into the dawning, and takes a breath of fresh air. Lady Liberty's view is directed to two main buildings, which stand between her and the rising sun. The Twin Trade Towers reach above the fog first, and display their crowns of glory high into the open sky. They form, as it were, stage curtains with the sun peeking through to get the first glimpse of the magnificent Lady Liberty. As she raises her eyes to the sky, a bald eagle swoops down and clasps her torch with its talons. It screams as if it too sensed the ominous ringing of those bells. All of nature seemed poised to forewarn grave danger.

The melancholy tolling of the bells disturbed Lady Liberty as she hung her head in bewilderment. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a passenger airliner skimming across the New York Harbor. This jet was extremely low and was headed for the trade towers. As the jet neared the island of Manhatten, her heart began to pulsate violently as to her amazement she realized the plane was too low to avoid the Trade Towers! It is a nightmare, some horror dream! No! The massive airliner has plunged itself into the North Trade Tower!

Black--just black, billowing smoke, as ink, spills uncontrollably out of the tower and pours its sticky oil over the sky. The trade tower is on fire. The deathly flames lick down the sides of the building, but their thirst is unquenchable. Those tolling bells are racing now in her mind; their death march in on the run. Lady Liberty's heart is throbbing with such intensity that it blocks everything else from her ears. Even the second airliner, as it screamed across her head, she cannot hear. As it crushes itself into the remaing tower, her mind begins to spin uncontrollably. Sparks shoot out like lightning from the tower. Sheets of steel are hanging everwhere, trapped, unable to escape the hellish grip of those flames. Debris is raining down, reeking havoc all over the city. The smoke now forms like an ominous thundercloud over the towers. The North Trade Tower teeters back and forth, losing its balance, and collapses to its death. The sound of the fall roars through the sky as the storm thunders. The South Tower also, singed and scarred, crashes upon its twin; and a ferocious, chaotic clap of steel, debris, and smoke fills the sky like an atomic bomb had just exploded.

Lady Liberty turned her head away as one giant teardrop plunged into the harbor below.