We do this every September 11...normally I dont get overly patriotic or emotional about this kind of thing, but then again, theres not a lot of this kind of thing thats ever happened in my lifetime... I remember vividly on Tuesday morning, 9/11/01, sitting in Dr. Youngs New Testament: Pauline Theology class, taking a quiz or test of some sort. Dr. Young came in and told us that someone had flown a plane into the tower, and we didnt realize it was a jet...I guess we thought it was some small prop plane or something. After class I walked into our student center and saw people gathering around the big TV (unaware my future wife Janie was also in that group of people) and the real terror of the magnitude of what was happening started to sink in. The rest of the day was as solemn and surreal a day as I think most of us could ever imagine. In these ensuing 13 years (wow), there have been lots of disagreements about politics, wars and religion that stem from that day...I have been involved in lots of those disagreements, but ultimately, the events of that day and what followed make that stuff seem insignificant. What is significant, and Ive tried hard (but not always successfully) to remember, is the way that Americans came together and responded to the attack...the way New York City came together and yes, grieved, but worked relentlessly to rescue survivors, honor the dead, and begin to clean up and rebuild from the tragedy...the way people who hadnt practiced their religion in years flocked to fill churches to pray for their fellow Americans and ask honest and searching questions about faith and God and evil and tragedy...the way the music of U2, Paul McCartney,The Who, Billy Joel and others at the Concert for New York and other charitable events had a genuine healing effect on our nation, especially on the firefighters, police and their families in NYC...The way David Letterman handled the events on his return to TV (this one really sticks out in my memory...we really needed some humor, and he brought it in a thoughtful and respectful way)...The way our government officials gathered on the Capital steps and sang about their American pride, across party lines....These events made me (and still do) proud to be an American. I think the immediate weeks and months after 9/11/01 may have been our finest moments as a nation. It has to be in my lifetime so far, anyway. Never forget? How could we?
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 15:04:08 +0000