September 11, 2001: A Nation Remembers

As baseball was getting back to business following a few days off after the tragic events of 9/11, it was St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck that helped pave the way.
Image Credit: Larry Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Buck’s speech was moving and it was just one way of getting America back to normalcy in the day’s that followed. For Buck, who was struggling with Parkinson’s Disease and lung cancer, it was one of his final appearances.

As a way of silencing those critics that thought baseball returned too soon, Buck finished with these thoughts: “I don’t know about you, but as for me, the question has already been answered: Should we be here? Yes!”

For America
A poem written by Jack Buck

Since this nation was founded under God
More than 200 years ago
We’ve been the bastion of freedom…

The light that keeps the free world aglow.
We do not covet the possessions of others,
We are blessed with the bounty we share.

We have rushed to help other nations…
Anything…anytime…anywhere
War is just not our nature…we won’t start
But we will end the fight.

If we are involved we shall be resolved to
Protect what we know is right.

We have been challenged by a cowardly foe
Who strikes and then hides from our view.

With one voice we say, “There’s no choice
Today, there is only one thing to do”

Everyone is saying the same thing
And praying that we end these senseless
Moments we are living.

As our fathers did before, we shall win
This unwanted war
And our children will enjoy the future,
We’ll be giving.

Written by Jack Buck
September 17, 2001