9/11

Today is an anniversary and I couldn’t let the day go by without writing. Nine-eleven has been called this generation’s Pearl Harbor. I was barely a year old when Pearl was attacked, so I have no memories of it. I have watched hours and hours of videos and a couple of movies. It took both of my brother sinto the military for several years. My older brother fought in Europe, as had my father in WWI. My second brother missed combat, but it was a “luck of the draw” kind of thing. I became something of a WWII buff watching movies, TV shows and reading books over the years.

But 9/11 seems more real to me than all that.

Even so, in both cases, Americans pulled together as they seldom do to respond to these two despicable acts. We all sacrificed in WWII. Even though I was young, I remember rationing of gas and various foodstuffs like sugar. And I think there was no butter available for “the duration.” Nine-eleven differs in that way. Few of us made any kind of sacrifice. That is not to say we weren’t shaken and moved by what happened. But the continuing legacy is we complain about airport delays, suitcase searches, and restrictions on liquids when we fly and inconvenience at border crossings at Canada and Mexico.

Nine-eleven sent men and women to Afghanistan, and probably to Iraq as well. Unlike Vietnam, while we deplore the necessity, we support our troops. And certainly there have been sacrifices in those conflicts, sacrifices in full measure. But as chronological distance separates us from 9/11, it seems to me we have not just become disconnected from each other; we have become almost rabidly hostile to each other.

On 9/11/01, the parish I was a part of had an impromptu prayer service in the late afternoon. Over 500 hundred people came to pray and to be consoled. I noticed today as I went about my normal affairs, including lunch with a friend, life was so ordinary it is easy to think many forgot what day this is. I hate to think that may be true.

We must remember, not that we have enemies, but that bridges must always be our focus and reconciliation a national policy. As idealistic as that sounds, if we don’t try to do those two things, we will not only slide further apart, we will continue the growing sense of alienation on the international level that is beginning to be our lot. Neither of these two things can be good for us or for the world.

God bless all who carry wounds from that day and its aftermath. God forgive us for our lack of vision.

Jerry