Your post brought me to tears, Faux Pas.

I'd like to add my own little bit of song...

--
O say, can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag is still there.
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

O thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
--

We are a strong nation; we are a strong people. We grieve for those we have lost, and yet we will right these wrongs, and we will prevail. The flag still waves.

~Amber