Opinion : A 9/11 perspective and the Freedom Rock

A heart-shaped flag covers one side of the Mitchell County Freedom Rock.

A 9/11 road trip took us to one of the Freedom Rocks scattered around Iowa.

I had hoped and planned to spend the 13th anniversary of September 11, and the following weekend, in Baltimore, where a huge celebration honored the 200th anniversary of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner.

Instead, I began the day with a visit to the hospital, where my twin brother was recovering from a quadruple bypass surgery, followed by a road trip.

Our afternoon jaunt was the kind that singer Mo Bandy so eloquently described nearly 40 years ago in the song, "Americana." (See the video below.)

On the way back from London (London, Minnesota, that is), we (me, Valerie and our two youngest daughters) passed through St. Angsar, where we saw one of the Freedom Rocks.

I have always believed that while a bullet from a Navy SEAL was the best for Osama bin Laden, the second best thing we could have done was to – before allowing him to find out for himself the rewards of martyrdom – was to show him America, post-9/11. I wanted him to see for himself what America looked like after the attacks he orchestrated. He should hear the singing of “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch, watch how Americans move freely in peace from one area to another, and see how that instead of weakening our way of life, 9/11 made us better Americans.

We spent our 9/11 afternoon on a road trip that eventually led from the hospital to Minnesota and back. On our return, we rounded the corner where 218 turns north and saw the Mitchell County Freedom Rock. On one side, Bubba Sorensen painted a heart-shaped flag that faces north; on the other side, a soldier's profile appears near a silhouette of a ship with helicopters and jets flying above. The rock is situated on a corner dedicated to veterans of that area.

Every day, but especially on 9/11, millions of Americans, from the smallest of towns to the most-crowded cities, silently declare the fact that even though we were certainly rattled, it has been clear since the morning of Sept. 12, 2001 that bin Laden lost the war he started. America kept on being America; he spent the last decade of his life in hiding, pleading with others to make themselves martyrs for his cause.

Sure, we could have done it better. Sometimes I think we forgot way too soon the way that 9/11 taught us to be more civil, to show more patriotism, to pray.

But that rock on that corner is just one of the innumerable signs that America, even when we are “at war with terror,” is a place full of faith – and peace.

See the Freedom Rock web site, with a map and photos of all the Freedom Rock paintings, HERE.

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