Remembering 9/11

It’s one of those days that are forever etched in one’s memory. You remember where you were and what you were doing when the news came. It was the day our country came under attack from a brutal enemy who plotted and carried out the deaths of nearly 3,000 innocent people. The enemy combatants did not wear the uniform of some hostile foreign nation, but in a cowardly fanatical allegiance to a false God, stealthily sent men and women and children to their deaths in a conflagration like had never been seen on American soil.

September 11, 2001 started out like any other workday. Here in Ashland, KY it was a pleasant late summer morning. A thick fog bank (which would burn off quickly) covered the three avenues that ran parallel to the Ohio River. As I drove to the Post Office early that morning I came through a break in the fog that revealed a bright cloudless sky and what promised to be a glorious day. The weather was much the same in New York City, Washington, DC and Shanksville, PA where thousands of people had no clue what was about to befall them in specific and the United States in general. It was a day that would change all of our lives forever.

Back at my office I delved into the day’s work. There were policies to change, service requests to process and phone calls to return. The first time my phone rang that morning it was my daughter in law, Leigh Anne who was home with her eight-month-old baby. “Are you watching this?” she said excitedly. I was busy and a little irritated at the question. “Watching what?” I asked. “I’m at work!”

“A plane has hit the World Trade Center in New York. There is a huge hole in the side of the building and flames are everywhere!” Immediately my mind went back to the story of the plane that struck the Empire State Building back in the 40’s. I assumed that naturally this latest crash must have been an accident involving a small private plane. Leigh Anne said that they were reporting that it was a larger plane, possibly a commercial jet. I was wondering how that could be possible when she cried, “Oh no! Another one just hit the other tower! I just saw it!” That was enough. I said goodbye, hung up the phone, and locked the office door as I headed across the driveway to turn on the TV at the house. That’s where I spent the rest of the day, like millions of Americans, glued to the television in disbelief.

The story continued to unfold through the day and none of us knew where this would all end. Would Chicago be next? LA? All of the commercial aircraft in American airspace were grounded. We watched in horror as the twin towers collapsed one after the other. We saw the Pentagon burning. Live pictures showed people running from the U. S. Capitol building. Unbelievable! We all remember the day. The numbness. The disbelief. The outrage. How could this be happening in our own country?

Commercial airliners had been hijacked and used as guided missiles. We didn’t know exactly who the enemy was but we knew he was cold blooded and without conscience. The attack had been unleashed on our financial community and our military headquarters with total disregard for the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. The great American machine came to a screeching (but temporary) halt. Families were destroyed. Children were orphaned. A plane was reported down in a field in Pennsylvania. We later learned that a heroic group of passengers on United flight 93, after learning what had happened to three other hijacked aircraft, rose up and stormed the cockpit saving the Capitol or the White House from taking the final hit from the terrorists.

Later that evening impromptu prayer vigils sprang up in churches in our town and all around the country. We came together as a nation against a common (though yet unidentified) enemy. Phrases like, “In God We Trust”, “God Bless America”, and “United We Stand” began to appear on business marquees and signs. American flags were flown from nearly every home and place of business. Houses of worship were full that next weekend, as our people (Protestants, Catholics, and Jews) came together as Americans seeking the face of God in our nation’s darkest hour.

Time has passed. Six years, in fact. We have learned much about our enemy. Although most of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, they claimed no particular state allegiances. They are followers of various Imams and Mullahs who preach hate and destruction against anyone whose faith is different than their own “jacked up” theology. The amazing claim was that they were doing this to appease an angry god they call Allah - a supposed deity who would reward them for their mass destruction of “the infidel” with an eternity in paradise, attended by 70 virgins.

It has become apparent that our enemy is not necessarily another nation. Our enemy is radical Islam. The proponents of this false religion are bent on the destruction of Christianity, Judiasm, and even western civilization, as we know it. America and Western Europe are the prime targets of these cowardly terrorists, along with the most hated enemy of all, the state of Israel. Friends, this is a war that we must fight to the end.

I am sickened by those who have said, “The Islamists believe in the same God we do. They just call him by a different name.” Hogwash!! The God of the Bible is infinitely different from the Allah that these fanatics claim to serve. The God we know through His Son, Jesus Christ doesn’t expect His followers to die for Him. He died for us! The God of the Bible is a Holy God, but He is a God of Grace and reconciliation. Because of our sinful nature, we could not go to where He was, so He came to us. He changes our lives through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit and He sends us forth into the world – not to kill the infidels, but to tell them of His love for them. To share the good news that they can indeed have eternal life, simply by trusting Jesus as their Savior and giving themselves to Him as a LIVING sacrifice.

This enemy cannot be allowed to continue to spew hate and destruction in the name of some false god. We are in a fight for our lives and for our culture. Our very existence is at stake and we cannot degenerate into infighting and bitter partisan politics in the face of such great danger. We MUST be united against those who would destroy us. After 9/11, we weren’t identifying ourselves as Republicans and Democrats. We were Americans first and foremost. All of the petty differences faded into insignificance.

Six years later one can only wonder what has happened to that spirit