#137

#137, Congress St, Brooklyn

This mural has been on a little-trafficked portion of Congress Street for nearly eight years. I always admire it whenever I pass, reading along as the white noise of cars passing on the BQE grants the air a reverent hush. The full text reads:

We Will Still Stand: New York yesterday, today and tomorrow bleeds. But for everyone's suffering there is a fellow New Yorker, a fellow American reaching out to stanch the flow, to comfort, to help, and above all, to sacrifice. Our hearts may have been broken, but they continue to beat. Most incredibly -- something terrorists cannot grasp -- they beat with a love for this nation and for one another.

The mural has faded and chipped over time. Weather has done damage, dirt has collected, a no parking sign has elbowed in. The plywood fence has rotted beneath the red, white, blue, and shades of gray. And though the paint is ephemeral, the words are not.