POULSBO – To Alice Hanson, it seemed, perhaps, an appropriate refrain.
But as she spontaneously broke into song from the porch of Martha & Mary on Sunday as the Freedom Walk proceeded by, it seemed to mean so much more.
Sept. 11 is a significant day for Hanson. The resident of Martha & Mary was born on Sept. 11, 1931. On her 10th birthday, construction began on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. On her 70th birthday, the Pentagon was attacked by suicide hijackers. Hijackers also flew two planes into the World Trade Center and crashed a plane in a field in Shanksville, Pa. Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day. The World Trade Center – which its architect said symbolized world trade and, thus, world peace — was destroyed.
But her nation survived. And now, on her 80th birthday, as participants in the Freedom Walk proceeded by, Hanson felt moved to sing: “… From the mountains, to the prairies / To the oceans, white with foam / God bless America, My home sweet home.”
The fourth annual Freedom Walk was a quiet tribute to the heroes and victims of 9/11. The procession began in front of the city Parks and Recreation building on Front Street, proceeded down Jensen Avenue to a flag-decorated Front Street, then continued through downtown to American Legion Park.
As they walked, participants – most of them clutching American flags — shared memories of where they were that day or told of relatives now serving in the military. They waved to motorists and passersby, and hugged and shook the hands of firefighters and police officers on the route.
The Freedom Walk was one of several events held throughout Kitsap County to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
In North Kitsap, North Kitsap Fire & Rescue hosted a community breakfast at the headquarters station on Miller Bay Road in Kingston. There was a brief ceremony at 8:45 a.m., symbolizing the time that the first plane hit the first tower. Suquamish Clearwater Casino provided food. Donations were accepted for two charities benefiting the children of 9/11 victims and the children of personnel who died in the ensuing war on terrorism.
At the Poulsbo branch of Kitsap Regional Library, books and films on 9/11 were made available for checkout, and visitors wrote entries into a special book.
Arguably the biggest event in the county was the Silverdale-to-Bremerton procession carrying steel beams from the World Trade Center. The beams will be part of the 9/11 Memorial in Kitsap Rotary Park in Silverdale.
At the Poulsbo walk, much of the talk was about the heroes of 9/11 and their example of selfless devotion to others.
Mayor Becky Erickson recalled her own feelings of shock, followed by coping, followed by anger, after the attacks. She said, “Ten years later, if we got any glimmer of hope from what happened, it’s that we’re a culture of individual heroes” – the military personnel who defend us, the firefighters who went into the Twin Towers to rescue people, the passengers who tried to take control of the hijacked plane that crashed in Shanksville.
Erickson called on Freedom Walk participants to “do for your neighbors, because it’s the right thing to do.”
Patrick Momany, a Navy veteran and restaurant owner who assists wounded veterans, added, “We can’t let evil triumph over our goodness.”
