Issue Date: December 30, 2001

Year-End Notes

To mark the end of this historic year, and usher in a new one, USA WEEKEND returned to some of the leaders, heroes and personalities who appeared on our cover in 2001. Here, their thoughts about our country today -- and New Year's wishes for the children born on Sept. 11, who will help define America's tomorrow.

Laura Bush, first lady
"I hope America's new generation, babies born on as well as after Sept. 11, will be nurtured and cared for by loving parents and will be educated by great American schools so our country remains the land of opportunity and has the internal strength that comes from citizens who are educated."
Count Our Blessings, By Laura Bush

Tom Brokaw, NBC news anchor
In our May 18-20 issue, Brokaw said: "People I talk to from the greatest generation have enormous faith in [the younger] generation. They know how much better educated and more sophisticated their grandchildren are. If the country was under attack, there's no doubt in my mind that generation would respond in the same fashion [as the World War II generation did]."
War and remembrance, Tom Brokaw

U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, D-N.Y.
"When you are old enough to read this, you will know a lot about your birthday. It is a date that makes you special. You share something with people from every part of Earth who were watching America the day you came into this world. Ask them about it. They will tell you they were worried about you, and every child who followed you, because it was a difficult time. Once in a great long while, something trying happens and reminds us why we Americans believe in our everlasting creed of equality, freedom and opportunity. Sometimes we don't live up to our creed. But your birthday reminded us to try harder. I hope you will live in a country still renewed by that purpose. If we aren't, you can remind us again."
Latin Lesson, by Cokie Roberts and Steven V. Roberts

Perry Flicker, 36, who rushed from his job at Intel Corp. in Parsippany, N.J., when the World Trade Center towers collapsed to volunteer for two weeks at Ground Zero
"My wish for the generation born on this day would be for them to know that, with courage, they can make a difference in the world. Not for the recognition but because their hearts guide them. I know they can attain their dreams, and I hope they recognize what's really important in life. I believe they will be the beginning of something new, capable of great things. I truly desire that they will understand that things worthwhile don't always come easily, and that they never forget: Without freedom, all is lost."
Change the world, By Marcia Bullard President, CEO & Editor, USA WEEKEND

Denyce Graves, opera star
"First of all, you, the children of Sept. 11, should know you are the most beautiful thing to come out of that day, when our country was more unified than ever before. You are everybody's children, born at a time when the world desperately needed you.
"You are our hope. You collectively are the best parts of who we are as a nation. My hope is that you find a way to recognize we're all God's children. You must try to find the God in everyone and understand that each and every person on this Earth is valuable."
Healing Harmonies with Denyce Graves

Robert Redford, actor
He told us in October: "It's beautiful to see that coming out of this horror, certain lines dropped away that were separating us -- lines of bigotry and racism and disrespect for others. As the country pulls together, we can run dangerously close to a kind of jingoism that eliminates other aspects of democracy, like free speech. We have to keep alive our freedoms."
Interview, Robert Redford

Lee Davis, filmmaker
"The phone rings. I stumble to the dresser and hit the speakerphone. A frantic voice screams into the receiver. She's a block away from the World Trade Center. She heard the plane roar over her head, felt the impact. She saw the gaping hole it left. 'The second building is blowing up!' She couldn't know it was another plane.
"Shouting for her to run as fast as she could. Turning on the TV. This certainly was the end of the world. I remembered I hadn't wished my mom happy birthday that day. As fighter jets roared over my Brooklyn neighborhood, filmmaking seemed as remarkably trivial as alternate-side-of-the-street parking. I wondered how many people never got to say goodbye to someone lost in the attack. Thousands were lost. Lifelong dreams stolen, left in a burning funeral pyre of twisted flesh, metal, concrete and jet fuel.
"But those born on Sept. 11 embody that which must not be destroyed: hope. They serve as a reminder that even in our darkest of days, life will find a way. We, all of us, have been blessed with a strange and precious gift: life. For certain, those born on Sept. 11 will be inundated by images and tales of disaster and heroism, and, maybe for it, they will take their gift more seriously. We all should."
Conversation with Spike Lee and Lee Davis