My Little Raptor

by Dartagnen

9/11

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I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple blossoms fill the air
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair

It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear...
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

"The importance of the achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet... that our visions go rather further than that, and our opportunities are unlimited." Neil Armstrong

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."

"Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature."

"We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings."

"The man who is forever disturbed about the condition of humanity either has no problems of his own or has refused to face them."

"I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries."

"As in the rankest soil the most beautiful flowers are grown, so in the dark soil of poverty the choicest flowers of humanity have developed and bloomed."

"Whatever misanthropists may say, ingrates and the perverse are exceptions in the human species."

"I am proud to be part of a species where a subset of its members willingly put their lives at risk to push the boundaries of our existence."

“The reason I don’t worry about society is, nineteen people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands. Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them. I’ll take those odds every fucking day.”

"It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

"I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown --in the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability....and goodness.....of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth, that we always make it just by the skin of our teeth --but that we will always make it....survive....endure. I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching, oversize brain case and the opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes, will endure --will endure longer than his home planet, will spread out to the other planets, to the stars, and beyond, carrying with him his honesty, his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage --and his noble essential decency. This I believe with all my heart."

I'd like to honor those who have fallen on this day. It may not be important to those who never saw the horrors that we all did on that faithful day. But it is to me. Thousands of people died on September 11th, yet hundreds went in to try to save those people. I'd take those chances every fucking day. I'd like to have a moment of silence. For those who have fallen on this day. They maybe thought that nothing would happen to their peaceful lives. They maybe thought that nothing bad would happen. Hell if I know, I wasn't there. Those who died are Heroes of War, even when they weren't in a battle of any kind, except to save each other.

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