Reflections on 9/11: understanding it all by and by

Digital Journal ^ | September 8, 2011 | John David Powell

[John David Powell]

It is that time, the day we knew was coming, the date we did not need to mark on our calendars.

What happened on that terrible Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, was a tragedy that profoundly affected us all. We stood motionless as we witnessed the unthinkable become reality. We gasped as we saw twin towers crumble, and we cried as we watched grown men weep. And then we gathered together, as communities and as a nation, to seek a collective consolation from those around us - our families, our friends, our colleagues.

Theodore Roosevelt wrote that “Death is always, and under all circumstances, a tragedy, for if it is not, then it means that life itself has become one.” The great calamity that struck our nation was much more than death. It was a vicious act that struck at the heart of America and touched the souls of each of her citizens.

The following Friday night, my younger daughter and I lit candles and stood on the sidewalk in front of our safe, suburban house. We joined a handful of neighbors and became links in a remarkable chain of candle bearers that stretched from sea to somber sea.

I first learned of the attacks while talking on the telephone with my wife, who was in Reno on business. Suddenly, she gasped: “Oh, my god. A building is on fire in New York.”

She soon became one of the thousands of people stranded in hotels when the government grounded all flights. Wednesday morning found her driving to Salt Lake City in a rented car across Nevada’s high-desert highway. She did not look forward to what she knew would be an ordeal at the airport Saturday morning. She arrived five hours before her scheduled departure.

It took 15 minutes for security to hand-search her checked luggage. Other personnel rummaged through her carry-on looking for knives, corkscrews, and letter openers. As she walked to her gate, she passed a gift shop selling souvenir knives, corkscrews, and letter openers. The nation’s airports have a few kinks to work out if they’re going to get this security thing to succeed, she said.

Ten years later, sadly, we still have not worked out this security thing. And much of the blame rests on those of us who want total security and total convenience, also known as freedom. One cannot be secure without inconvenience, without giving up some freedoms. Making sure all the doors and windows are locked at night is both confining and inconvenient, but it also is prudent. Ten years later, we still grapple to determine what freedoms you and I are willing to trade for security.

It is curious now to look back a decade and see how we set aside the petty parts of politics, how we gave proper perspective to the shallow world of celebrities, how we embraced the concept of respect even if for an all-too-short time. The sad irony here is that on the eve of our national remembrance comes word of a video game that promotes the murder of tea party zombies and conservative journalists. Res ipsa loquitur.

It was also interesting to note that we set aside ravaging religious debates while the nation sought solace and guidance. Children and their teachers prayed in school. The National Cathedral was the site of our national day of mourning. President Bush invoked the name of God at every appearance. Until 9/11, we had wrapped God in the flag, put them both in a drawer, and allowed certain factions to lock them up and throw away the key. And then came those too-few days following that terrible Tuesday when we broke the lock, displayed the flag, and prayed to God for forgiveness and strength.

Some of us searched the old books for scriptures that would provide us light and hope as we stumbled through darkness and fear. “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces,” the prophet Isaiah assured us from across the millennia.

Like little children, we asked why. Then our children turn to us and asked the same question. Why? Ten years later, we still have no answer.

Back then, as I searched for the answer, I remembered an old gospel song that helped me look beyond the question:

When death has found and taken our loved ones, Leaving our home so lonely and drear, Then do we wonder why others prosper, Living so wicked year after year. Farther along we’ll know more about it. Farther along we’ll understand why. Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine. We’ll understand it all by and by.

John David Powell writes his Lone Star Award-winning columns from ShadeyHill Ranch in Texas. His email address is johndavidpowell@yahoo.com.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Remembrance Archive: Free Republic Threads From 9-11-01

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/620413/posts

[Roccus]

Why? Ten years later, we still have no answer.

Ten years later and there are those that are STILL blind. There IS an answer...and it is islam.

[patriot08]

The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.

Our voices need to be heard not only at Town Hall sessions or Tea Party demonstrations but in the very halls of Congress. We have to speak out to stop the desecration of September 11th.

NEVER FORGET

"Every 'moderate' Muslim is a potential terrorist. The belief in Islam is like a tank of gasoline. It looks innocuous, until it meets the fire. For a 'moderate' Muslim to become a murderous jihadist, all it takes is a spark of faith.

It is time to put an end to the charade of “moderate Islam.” There is no such thing as moderate Muslim. Muslims are either jihadists or dormant jihadists – moderate, they are not."

Ali Sini

Ali Sini is head of Faith Freedom International. FFI is a grassroots worldwide movement of ex-Muslims and all those who are concerned about the rise of the Islamic threat.

Faith Freedom International Forums ______________________________________________

NEVER FORGET

Watch 'Remembering 9/11' on the Geographic Channel. Repeating Thursday 3PM CST: 'Inside 9/11: Zero Hour'- EXCELLENT.

Also, on TLC, 'Heros of the 88th Floor', 9PM CST Sat 9/10/11

_______________

Watch this moving video. It is the most viewed of any of the 9/11 videos and is now in the Smithsonian.

Be sure to read (at the site) Anatomy Of The Attack and the moving essay,’That Day’ by Steve Golding, a New Yorker who lived through it.

[Roccus]

WHY?!?!

Why was my post #3 “submitted for review”?

What have I said on this foruim, EVER, that would result in this action?

[trisham]

Thanks! I just bookmarked that link.

[EnglishCon]

The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry. Our voices need to be heard not only at Town Hall sessions or Tea Party demonstrations but in the very halls of Congress. We have to speak out to stop the desecration of September 11th.

---

Wait, what? If true that is the most foul thing done thus far by a foul regime.

[Admin Moderator]

It looks like a glitch. We are trying to fix. Nothing you did.

[Envisioning]

Bookmark and (((ping)))