The Day We Must Remember and Never Forget

Agree. Unfortunately, I think a lot of us have forgotten the horror and the significance of that first 9/11. We were watching Fox News when the first plane hit, and I called our son who worked across the river in Jersey to tell him. He went to the window to look, then returned to his desk. When I called him back about the second plane, he didn’t believe me at first. He saw the towers fall. When we were down there visiting him shortly after 9/11, there were memorials everywhere, including banners and flags hanging above the entrance to the tunnel across the Hudson. “Never forget” and “We will always remember” were everywhere. Maybe people in New Jersey and New York still have a very clear memory of that day, but I think so many others have forgotten - until the media focus attention again around the anniversary.

Ecclesiastes 3:3

These days I think of the children and spouses who heard the voices of the dead for the last time on an answering machine, or kissed them goodbye when they left. It’s more than a decade on and nothing has ever been the same again for them.

Their human histories were changed forever by the acts of people who hate America and wish to destroy it in their religious war, a war in which most people did not recognize they were engaged.

Of course, nothing is random in God’s story, but what a random and shocking loss that seems for these families. It was literally “out of the blue” and there was no way someone could plan for or expect it.  The only other act I can think of that would be similar in inexplicability and shocking unexpectedness would be the suicide of a child or spouse whom you did not know was depressed.

God bless those families and may they experience joy and peace and God’s presence today.

Interesting discussion on morning radio in Sioux Falls today.  Greg Belfrage, the conservative host on KELO-AM, asked if 9/11 should become a national holiday.

Most callers were against the idea, the main argument being that the day would lose solemnity and devolve into just another “day off” for overeating and drinking.

But there was wide support for commemorations, teaching and displays that would be specific about what happened on 9/11/2001.

My thoughts are for those who suffered maiming or disfiguring injuries in the attacks, and their families.  They will live with the terrorists’ handiwork for the rest of their lives in a way nobody else will.

My heart also goes out to our terribly wounded military personnel and their families who face decades of pain and struggle.

Oh Lord, please comfort them.  Uphold sustain and strengthen them, and ease their pain.  Where their is heartache, injury, illness, or dispair, please bring healing, and where lives have been shattered, help them to be rebuilt.  And of thy goodness Father, please grant each of them a saving faith in thee, and the blessings of hope and confidence in this life, and blessings eternal in the life of the world to come.  Amen.

Alas, I was teaching as the twin towers fell in NYC. I did not know what had happened until i came back from class to check a forum of which I was part (not this one). Someone mentioned it. I thought they were kidding. They relayed the sad facts to me. The college dismissed the rest of classes that day. It was weird not to hear any airplanes in the sky (at the time, we lived near the flight route for a local airport so seeing planes was quite common).  I could not watch the TV coverage so I went outside and did some gardening.

Our collective memories are far too short. It seems that every generation or two we get a sharp reminder that we live in a dangerous world. One of our old timers makes sure we ring the church bell on Armistice day, but few appreciate the depth of meaning. Pearl Harbor day means precious little to most of today’s children. We need these reminders, I am sorry to say.

I agree #7 - especially given we have nice neighbors to the north, non-threatening neighbors to the south and an ocean on the east and west side of our country. 

We really do not have any appreciation for what Israel goes through on a daily basis, surrounded on all sides by people who want to kill them.

It is terribly unfortunate 9/11 happened - but it may have actually woken us up and prevented something much worse.  We MUST remember…

But to put this in perspective:  We lost about 3,000 killed on that day.  But 150 years ago R.E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia invaded Maryland.  In about a week Lee will meet the Army of the Potomac commanded by General McClellan just outside of Sharpsburg.  4,700 will die that day, 18,440 will be wounded (many of whom will die later), and 3043 will be missing (probably killed).  And the butcher’s bill is just starting.

I was just across the Hudson when the planes hit.  Not fun.

But what sticks with me today was a small meeting I went to with my Congressman a few days later.  Everyone accepted that terrorism had tragically but finally become part of American life.  Talk was of better risk management, smarter policing, better border control, international cooperation.  We were afraid the nation might overreact, but everyone in the room was willing to live a little sacrificially, I might add, with more risk.  I wish that message of sacrifice could have gotten out of New York more and there had been no CIA black sites or Guantanamo Bay.

Also, Trinity Wall Street for all its problems did a great job responding to 9/11.  The response at St. Paul’s Chapel was beautiful.

Those who wish to remember this day will have ways of doing that which are special to them.  Some of course are starting to forget and maybe some have already forgotten.

What I fear most is that most have forgotten that this was a day in which we were under active attack by radical Islam.  Not the first time mind you, but certainly the most successful from their [the Islamists’]  view point; in terms of lives taken that day and how they instilled fear [for awhile] in Americans.

What seems to go almost unnoticed in our daily lives is the fact that the radical Islamists’ intent to turn America into a Muslim nation and institute Sharia law has not gone away.  Many think with the death of Bin Laden and some others that radical Islam is crippled.  In fact, we hear these same sentiments trumpted by our Government and some in our military.

The fact of the matter is that radical Islamists have continued to build multiple organizations in this country and enclaves of Muslims in a sort of self-imposed aparthied [Dearborn, MI].  It is documented that the Muslim Brotherhood has infilitrated the Government and Military at various levels [Ft. Hood ring a bell?].  Our southern border is a seive which lets Iraqi and Muslim Brotherhood sponsored terrorits slip into this country virtually unopposed.

What I wish we would remember as Christians and Americans, is that we will meet these folks in battle on our turf again.