Many issues are looming in my mind this evening while many will be taking a couple of hours out of their schedule to take in Flight 93 and I obstinately refuse to watch the movie. Frankly, less than two minutes of the trailer left me in tears so I am not going to spend a Friday night shook up over an event I remember clearly. Although I was not in NY on 9/11, the horrific events of that day rocked my world to the core. As the day progressed, I remembered a conversation I had with my father about a month before 9/11 regarding the last attack on American soil - Pearl Harbor - and the feeling we were in for a rude awakening. I remember feeling like I was in a real life Tom Clancy novel and the knowledge our country would forever change due to the events of the day. In the aftermath of 9/11 I traveled to New York City to help with the efforts at ground zero and received the biggest shock of my life. Although I love to travel, I was home sick the entire time I was in New York and could not shake the feeling that enveloped me while at ground zero. To hear of the workers removing the remains of the 9/11 victims and see their faces as they spoke of the horrific events. To feel death in the air at ground zero and know the location will be the final resting-place for those murdered in a horrific attack on innocent American citizens and our guests. This attack was an atrocity in the worst sense, because soldiers were not the attacked. It could have been any of us killed in that attack, because our enemy killed people found guilty of being in America.
Yes, I am angered, appalled, and disgusted by the actions of those who kill the innocent in the name of God or Allah. Part of me wants to seek revenge and skin them alive, but I realize that revenge does not serve a purpose. If anything, the desire for revenge and the inability to forgive harms us as individuals and as a society more than it harms those guilty of the worst crimes. I speak as someone who has had to rebuild my life after being the victim of a violent crime less than two years after 9/11 so I speak with some surety in this area. I have heard we need to keep the anger alive in order to protect ourselves, but I do not agree that we need to keep the anger alive. We need to remember what happened and protect our country and ourselves fully, but we do not need to keep the anger alive in order to do this. Hard as it is to realize, forgiveness does not mean we approve of what happened. God forgives each of us of our sins, but we still have to suffer the consequences of our actions. Likewise with those vile enough to attack our country in this horrific manner, we can forgive them, but this does not mean we will let them get away with what they did to us. Unfortunately, letting go of the anger is a hard lesson to learn and anger is the easy way out for the most part. As long as we stay angry, we think we remain vigilant although we are actually destroying ourselves bit by bit and allowing our enemy to win. Christ commands us to love our enemies and forgive them, as we want to be forgiven which is often the hardest part of the gospel for us to adhere to although it is one of the most beneficial teachings. Christ gave us this command, because he realized the harsh truth of the matter -- anger, yes even justified anger, is detrimental to our spiritual wellbeing.
The immediate victims of 9/11 and their families are in my prayers along with our citizens and government while we navigate the difficult process of protecting our country while not allowing anger to consume us. Yes, the deaths of almost 3,000 INNOCENT human beings is horrific and should awaken in us the need to protect ourselves instead of turning a blind eye to those who want to harm us. Anger and retribution are not the solution though.
So, one of these days, I may go see Flight 93 just as one of these days I may go The Passion of Christ.
Edited: June 14, 2006 PM
