In the dark days following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington we have been best comforted in whatever small way possible by the words of our national hymns. The Congress spontaneously singing "God Bless America," the beautiful voice singing "America the Beautiful" at Friday's national service and hundreds of other such moments will be etched in our national soul for years to come.

We rarely think about the human beings -- in all their diversity -- who gave us these treasures which we hold so dear. Perhaps, when we are tempted to turn our anger and our blame towards our neighbor for being different, as did some of our religious leaders this week -- we'd do well to remember these precious and patriotic Americans.

Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929)

Katharine Lee Bates, Professor of English at Wellesley College, lived for 25 years in a committed same-sex relationship with Katharine Coman, chair of the Economics Department and Dean of the College. Bates called Coman her "joy of life." On July 22, 1893, Bates and Coman, on their first grand trip West together, climbed 14,000 feet to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. There Bates found the inspiration for her poem "America The Beautiful."

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Irving Berlin (1888-1989)

Born Israel Baline in Eastern Russia on May 11, 1888, Irving Berlin was one of eight children born to Leah and Moses Baline. His father was a shochet (a man kills chickens as prescribed by Jewish religious laws) and also the cantor in the synagogue. His family immigrated to New York in 1893 to escape the pogroms in Russia.

God Bless America,
Land that I love
Stand beside her,
And guide her,
Through the night
With the light from above,
From the mountains,
To the prairies,
To the ocean,
White with foam,
God bless America,
My home sweet home.
God bless America,
My home sweet home.

(By the way, Kate Smith, the woman most identified with "God Bless America" broke social barriers against single working women and showed once again there is more than one mold of femininity.)

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)

Julia Ward Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," was a writer, poet, reformer and lecturer, who worked throughout her life for justice. In 1861, she authored The Battle Hymn as an inspiration to Union soldiers fighting against slavery. Of even greater importance to her, she founded, with Lucy Stone and others, the New England Women's Club, which later became the American Woman Suffrage Association. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, Howe lectured and wrote on women's rights not only fighting for the right to vote, but also struggling to liberate women from the confinement of the traditional "woman's place" in stifling marriages. She also worked for world peace, founding,in 1891, the American Friends of Russian Freedom, and serving as president, in 1894, of the United Friends of Armenia.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me:
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

And finally, throughout the long days and nights commentators around the world have pointed to the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, a regal witness to the tragedy, imagining her great sorrow.

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)

Emma Lazarus, a 4th generation New Yorker of Portuguese Jewish descent wrote the famous words which we now so closely associate with Liberty herself. Lazarus never married.

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to be free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Kate Monteiro