I remember the way 9-11 petrified my family.  The way my heart sank and my mind reeled.  The way my children, accustomed to unshaken parents, saw the fear in our eyes as the news feed rolled on.

I remember wondering how anyone could recover from loss and pain like that.  How terrified those people must have been as their planes were commandeered, as their office buildings became infernos and they jumped rather than burn.  I remember the ash-covered faces on the television, too stunned for tears to form rivers in the soot.

In an election year, we do well to remember that we were all one that day.  All wounded, all bleeding, all battered and all resolved to stand against the forces of evil..that thing now defined down to mean anyone who disagrees with a prevailing view.

But that day we understood what it meant.  We knew the world, for all its modernity, still was an arena where freedom and tyranny, cruelty and mercy, lawlessness and justice were struggling.

And that day we knew what it was to be American. That day, for all it’s horror, was a shining moment.

May God give peace to the survivors and rest to the souls of the dead.  May God block and frustrate the wicked.  And may America learn to be a land of unity without that kind of suffering to prompt it.

Edwin

 

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