Posted on 09/16/2001 11:26:37 AM PDT by logos
We do not know their names, except for just a few. We do not even know their number, except that they are in the thousands. We do know some things about them.
We know that they were bankers and stockbrokers, corporation executives and insurance agents, actuaries and accountants ... but they were also janitors and maintenance workers, retail clerks and store managers, security personnel and receptionists, firemen and policemen, as well as other occupations.
We know that they were white and black, brown and red and yellow. We know that they were men and women and children, some were babies.
We know that they were Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Muslims, Buddhists and pagans, atheists and agnostics, and some were most likely of other faiths, as well.
We know that they were pilots and stewardesses and passengers, some of them were jaded New Yorkers, others were rubber-necking tourists, and there were some who probably can't be classified.
We know that they were Democrat and Republican, Independent and Reform Party members, libertarians, socialists, conservatives and liberals, and some were completely apolitical. Some voted in the last election, and some never voted in any election.
Some were civilians, some were military, and some were civilians who worked for the government.
Most importantly, we know that they were our brothers and sisters. They were Americans.
Last Tuesday, September 11, 2001, they all died ... in flames and smoke, under tons of falling rubble, and falling out of the sky. They died in the twin towers of the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and in the Pennsylvania countryside. Some even died as heroes.
And they were all our brothers and sisters. They were all Americans. They were all murdered.
Because they were our brothers and sisters, because they were Americans, because they died for no good reason, we mourn their passing. We grieve for their families and friends. We grieve for all they left behind. We grieve for our nation. We grieve for ourselves.
We did not know them, they were strangers to us all, but they were members of our national family. They were participants in the American dream, and we mourn their loss.
In losing these brothers and sisters we have lost a part of ourselves. When they were murdered ... so suddenly, so finally, so senselessly ... a part of each of us was killed with them. They are gone from this earth, and we will never be the same again.
Please join me in a moment of silent prayer, as we ask God to bring some good out of such monumental evil.
May God have mercy on the souls of our lost brothers and sisters.
May God comfort those who loved them, and those who grieve for them.
Amen.
It is impossible to understand the depth of the hatred we saw exhibited this last Tuesday, even as it played itself out in New York, in Washington, D.C., and in the Pennsylvania countryside. Even so, if we are to survive this gross insult to our American family, we must try to understand it, if only a little.
Somewhere in the backs of our minds we've known that America had its enemies. I don't think we understood the kind of enemy we have, and I'm sure we don't know why they hate us as much as they obviously do.
Nineteen young men, none of them out of their thirties, most of them in their twenties, willingly chose to die, just so they could kill as many of us as possible at the same time.
Nor was this a spur-of-the-moment act, done under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or in the throes of insanity. The mayhem and destruction that played itself out last Tuesday was planned for months, if not years. Slowly and methodically these men, and those who helped them, gathered all the materials they needed, and took the training which would allow them to operate the weapons of their choice, all the while living among us as friends.
On the appointed day they abandoned their temporary homes in our neighborhoods, and traveled to the different airports they had chosen, from which they carried out their deadly plans.
As hard as it is to believe now, they were not totally successful. At least one team of young men was unable to take over the plane they had chosen, and left the airport without getting on the plane they had chosen. Another group missed their target of first choice. The plane which crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside fell short of its intended target, thanks to the heroic efforts of a few passengers who knew they were about to die, but decided to die without making even more Americans victims.
But they were successful enough. Thousands of our brother and sister Americans are dead, and our enemies called it an act of war.
Those who hate us with such deadly purpose have declared war on America, and we must wake from our slumber and respond. We have no choice, because they have given us no choice. They have said they will continue to attack us, perhaps the next time with even more deadly weapons, killing even more of our fellow citizens, and they will continue their war against us whether we make war on them, or not.
So be it.
As I'm sure many of you have done I have spent much time in the past few days watching my television as these events have unfolded. Beginning on Tuesday, and continuing right through to today, I have heard many voices calling for, no, demanding vengeance. Many of our fellow citizens want blood for blood. We must not forget, however, that "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord."
Somehow, in some way, we must find a way to forgive these people who hate us so deeply. I know how unpopular such an idea is in our nation today, yet, the word of our God is clear. Vengeance is not ours to take. Vengeance is God's business, not ours.
Yet, what are we to do? If we overlook this heinous act, it will just be repeated, again and again. More of our people will be killed, more of our property destroyed, more reasons will be given us to mourn and grieve. Still, we must forgive our enemies.
But we are not called to tolerate their murderous acts.
Does the farmer hate the rats which make nests in his corn crib? No. They're just being the rats that they were born to be. That's what rats do. Still, the farmer doesn't allow them to continue living in his corn crib. He does whatever he has to do, as long as he has to do it, until every last rat is gone from his corn crib. And the farmer knows that, rats being rats, he cannot stop until every last rat is dead or gone. Leaving even one is the same as leaving them all.
Of course, it was not rats which took the lives of our brothers and sisters last Tuesday. It was evil. Evil is the absence of all good. Evil is evil. This evil has made its nest in our cribs, and we must be resolved to destroy this evil before it destroys us.
Our President is a man of good will, a loving man, a man who would rather smile than frown or sneer, even when confronting his enemies. Over the past few days, as I have watched him on my television, I have seen a man who has been deeply saddened by these events, a man who is grieving even as we grieve, but I have also seen a man with great resolve.
I have not seen a man who hates. I have seen a man who knows the job he has been called to do. I have seen a man who is resolved to do the job he has been given, no matter the cost, no matter the time it takes, no matter the difficulty and sacrifice.
It is his job to lead us in this war we did not ask for, and it is our job to follow him where he leads.
He has told us it will not be easy. No matter; we are as resolved as he.
He has told us it will take a long time. No matter; we are resolved.
He has told us it will have a great cost. No matter; we are resolved.
He has told us we will be called to sacrifice. We are resolved to sacrifice.
He has told us that we must not stop waging war until the last vestige of this evil among us has been eliminated. No matter; we are resolved.
Over the years here in America we have grown soft.
We will become stronger.
Lately, we have been lazy.
We will become industrious.
In our recent past we have become complacent.
Now, we care, and deeply.
Recently, we have come to call good evil, and evil good.
Now we see evil for what it is, and we will remove this evil from us, and from the world which spawned it.
We are resolved.
Amen.
A perfect analogy. Thank you for putting into words what I've been struggling with all week.
Yours in Christ,
Peace.
Here's a bump anyway.
Let us not forget; we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with barbarians who pervert the sacred teachings of that great religion for their own putrid goals. Their only resemblance to civilized humanity is the fact that they walk upright.
Let us be firm in our resolve to do what must be done. No trials, no courts, no Miranda readings. No, they must be hunted down and disposed of like the rabid vermin they are.
To do less would be to stand aside and let barbarism triumph over freedom. To those to harbor and welcome this tyranny, I say to you; OVER MY DEAD BODY.
To those who, even now, are moving to stand in the gap; welcome aboard...let's send 'em to hell!
Your words remind me of the Scripture, "Be angry and sin not."
I am angry, logos. Very angry. We have been attacked by a diabolical, malevolent, ruthless enemy. Images and shrieks of pain and grief sear my mind every day. They echo in my soul as I go to sleep and they wake me up in the morning.
I don't know if in my anger I am sinning or not, but I don't even want to hear any expressions of desire for 'peace' and 'justice' right now. As far as forgiving our enemies, may God have mercy on their souls, but if they are not exterminated from the face of the earth with a massive, inexorable ferocity; a righteous vengance that overwhelms them like an avalanche, they will be back with devastation a thousand-fold.
Cordially,
I'm not sure I would forgive the people behind this terrible act even if they asked, but that's probably because I'm not even close to being perfect.
But there's no chance at all that I would forgive them unless they asked. God wouldn't.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of Battle; Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke Him, we humbly pray, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who prowl through the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen
This powerful prayer of exorcism was composed by Pope Leo XIII; in a vision, he had been shown the fearful battle to be waged between Satan and St. Michael, over the Church of the future.
I think I can do my part, whatever that may prove to be, to assist in the complete and utter eradication of these "rats" from the face of the earth; and I think I can do it without sliding into hatred.
However, if I can't do that, you remember the words of Martin Luther, who said "If all your options are sinful, sin boldly."
We can do no more than live the lives allotted to us, to the best of our ability strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. Fortunately, that's all we're asked to do.
I forgive them for the benefit it gives me, after which I can do my part in eradicating them from the face of the earth with a clear conscience, knowing that it is my duty, rather than a product of hatred.
I'll be back. Best regards.
(P.S. Now is the time for all good men to understand the restraint inherent in the Christian -- New Testament -- ideology. We rush to retribution at our own peril. That is precisely what they want.)
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