THE GARDEN OF ETERNAL VIGILANCE
October 5th 2006
Michael Smerconish
IT'S AMAZING what neighbors can do when united in purpose.
On Saturday, in Lower Makefield Township, Bucks County, several thousand
gathered in what used to be a nondescript field to rechristen the Garden of
Reflection, a tribute to 9/11 victims. Fellow citizens spent five years
planning and fund raising to bring to life what is now a showpiece for the
nation.
Bucks was the hardest hit of Pennsylvania's counties on
Sept. 11, and Lower Makefield bore a particular brunt because it's a commutable
distance to New York City. Seventeen Bucks Countians died that day, a statistic
that enabled state Rep. David Steil to get the commonwealth to designate the
garden as the official Pennsylvania memorial.
From the outset, the garden was a collaborative effort of
neighbors united by tragedy whose mission seemed guided by divine purpose. How
else to explain that on a cold day in January 2002, family survivors Grace
Godshalk, Fiona Havlish, Ellen Saracini and Tara Bane went looking for a site
and found a lonely American flag wedged in some bushes on Woodside Road. They
knew at once they'd found the spot. Two years later, Lower Makefield named the
proposed site Memorial Park.
When it came time to review potential designs, they flowed
in from all over, but it was a local woman, Yardley's Liuba P. Lashchyk, who
conceptualized the final plan. The level of her deliberation is readily
apparent.
Visitors to the garden are first confronted with a
several-ton piece of twisted steel from the wreckage of the Twin Towers. This
remnant of Ground Zero intentionally faces the direction of New York City.
Symbolism is everywhere. Seventeen maple trees on an outer
berm acknowledge the Bucks County residents lost in the attack, and 42 lights
along the spiral labyrinth walk remember each of the Pennsylvania children who
lost a parent that day.
The names of all 2,973 victims are etched in a glass
semi-circle leading up to the inner sanctum.
At the heart of the garden is a reflecting pool where two
recessed squares represent the footprint of the Twin Towers and serve as the
basis for dual ascending fountains that rise as a metaphor for the soaring
spirit of the victims.
I'm not a message kinda guy, but even I get the garden. It's
a special place, worth the drive from anywhere in the region.
The dedication befitted the creation. Local firefighters and
American flags lined the approach. Valerie Mihalek, a local woman, coordinated
the event with military precision. Literally. How else to explain the C-17 that
dropped out of the sky and tipped its wing, flown by yet another local, U.S.
Air Force Maj. Samuel Irvin III of Wrightstown.
The ceremony was appropriately devoid of politics. Rep. Mike
Fitzpatrick, in a tough re-election battle, was the emcee. His role was
deserved given his procurement of $750,000 to build the garden. But he just did
his job and was never formally introduced. It was that kind of low-key day.
The speakers were emotional. They included Tara Bane (who
lost her 33-year-old husband), Grace Maureen Godshalk (who lost her 35-year-old
son) and Ellen Saracini (whose husband Victor was the captain of United Flight
175). The Commencement Brass played "Holy, Holy, Holy," and the
Pennsbury High choir sang "You'll Never Walk Alone."
We all had goose bumps.
Go see the garden. It's just five minutes from the New
Hope-Yardley exit of I-95. When you get there, you will see that the site is
ringed with athletic fields where children will play for future generations,
which reminds me of the most significant aspect of what these neighbors
created.
We've all heard it said that, with regard to the events
preceding that fateful day, the most important failure was one of imagination.
Well, sitting at the dedication on Saturday, it occurred to me
that for more than 99 percent of the country, Sept. 11 was a day never
experienced directly. To be sure, we were all witness in a way and everyone now
has images and ideas based on the film footage, but only a few experienced
directly the ramifications of what occurred.
The garden not only honors the dead, but offers their
sacrifice as a way of protecting against any failure of imagination in the
future. It's a living reminder of what occurred so that never again will there
be a similar lapse of attention.
Long after we're all gone, the Garden of Reflection will
form images and ideas in the minds of those who follow us of a horrific event
that will not have been seen or experienced directly by anyone then living. So
let's hope that, in that way, it will safeguard future generations against a
repeat failure of the imagination.
Michael Smerconish can be heard
weekdays 5:30-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.