Every year, I feel like I rewrite the same damn thing. On this eve of the attacks on our nation's soil on September 11, 2001, I once again recall my own story of where I was and what I felt. We all have these stories-- this is akin to the attacks on Pearl Harbor for The Greatest Generation.
I'll give the Cliff's Notes version.
It was my last semester at the University of West Florida. I was walking in late to a class, and I noticed that the professor was not yet there {she used to glare at me when I was late for the 8 o'clock class} Confused, I asked a classmate where the teacher might be. The classmate replied" She's in her office crying. Planes attacked the Twin Towers in New York" {I'm paraphrasing, as I do not remember exactly what this conversation entailed.}
I walked to the University Commons, where I knew I could see a big-screen TV. Students, faculty and staff were crowded around the TV and silently listened in horror as Katie Couric reported on the chaos. I'd seen enough, I went to the public phone {yes, I'm that old} and called my parents. Dad agreed to come to campus and pick me up.
Later we learned that another plane hit The Pentagon, and that a third plane, aimed for The White House, had been diverted and crashed in a field in southwestern Pennsylvania.
While the events which we'll remember tomorrow were surely horrible, at least the perpetuators were people of known hostile nations. The horror of this day twenty-two years ago tomorrow united Americans of all stripes. For once in my lifetime, the hope Christ gives us seemed close to a reality:
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" Galatians 3:28.
Twenty-two years later I am older, somewhat wiser, and remembering another horror that occurred on January 6, 2021. I watched, feeling utterly helpless, as Americans stormed our Capitol city in a violent insurrection.
My question is: How can we find that unity-- as Americans and as humans-- that was felt in the immediate days following the attacks of September 2001? How can we see each other as Christ sees us-- as members of the human family?
How can we come together and {eventually} move beyond the severe polarization that is the reality now? After two years of a pandemic, it would make sense for people to want to come together again. yet I see nothing but division. Even within local members of my own political party recently, we had division that sparked some online and real-life drama.
We. Need. To. Act. Like Grown-ups.
Tomorrow I will honor those we lost in the attacks on our nation in September 2001. Additionally, I'll remember the survivors-- those people still living among us where were at the Pentagon or in Manhattan near the Twin Towers on this day.
Never forget.
Amen.
Sarah McCarren
9/10/22
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