September 11

September 11 is one of those days that you know exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Like Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination or the Challenger disaster, it is a date that is seared into our national conscience. I was working for a law firm in the Midwest at the time. The guy who broke the news to us was a notorious prankster, so I did not believe him at first. I was numb for days. It was horrifying. What else was going to happen? All those thoughts swirled around my head.

Last summer, my family visited Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. We visited the little old church across the street that stood through the explosion and collapse of the buildings. It was overwhelming. I could sense the pall that hung over the place as many souls perished amid the rubble and flames. Many found their final mortal resting place in the debris. I have never experienced anything like that before. I have been to my share of cemeteries, but I have never felt the thick presence of death like I did at Ground Zero. (I have heard of others experiencing the same thing at Nazi death camps.) I also had a sense of anger. How could anyone conceive doing this to a fellow human being? As I stood there swatting the fog of death from my face, I could feel my blood boiling. The attack was against our way of life, our freedoms. Don't think for a minute that those terrorists would not kill you in a heart beat.

Many Christian leaders rose up to condemn the act. Some rose up to put their feet in their mouths. Most said it would be a time of spiritual awakening. It was, but it only last about a month. The problem is everything is now back to normal. Many have forgotten. Many cannot remember why we attacked.

The closing lines from Abraham Lincoln's great Gettysburg Address are appropriate as we remember what happened and those who perished:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (Full Text.)

We cannot, we must not, forget what happened.