All lives matter.
Today is the fourteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. I can remember exactly where I was and exactly what I was doing that morning. I’ll bet you can too. I can hardly believe that it’s been that long.
Nineteen Islamic men hijacked four commercial air planes and killed 2,977 people. That day is a picture of true hatred. Personally, I think that’s the first time I ever witnessed true hatred.
We us the term hate, an awful lot these days. The teenagers love to say, “haters gonna hate,” about every little thing from their favorite song that someone criticizes, to referring to someone who has said something negative about them.
Of course, they don’t remember 9/11. The oldest teenager would have only been five when the attacks occurred.
I’m not quite sure how fourteen years later, every time someone disagrees with someone else, it gets called hate. We have become a nation of people who get offended by just about everything and when we are offended, we want to say the offending party hates us.
But, offending someone is not hate. 9/11 is hate. Beheading Christians in the Middle East for being Christians, is hate. A man attending a church prayer group in Charleston and then killing the same church members who welcomed him; that’s hate.
Refusing to bake a wedding cake for someone is not. Voting Democrat instead of Republican or vice versa, is not. Disagreeing with someone politically is not hate.
Right after 9/11, Americans were amazingly united. As a country, we turned back to God. Our churches were full for a time. We weren’t black or white, or Asian American, or Mexican American. We weren’t Republicans or Democrats. We weren’t rich or poor.We weren’t straight or gay. We were Americans.
We joined together in numbers probably not seen since World War II. We were united. We were angry and we were strong. We were dangerous to any evil doer who crossed our paths. There was an attempt in December of 2001 to take another American plane with a shoe bomb, but the passengers attacked the 6′ 4″, 200 pound guy, tied him up and gave him a tranquilizer. Americans were once again a force to be reckoned with.
But, fourteen years later, we seem to have forgotten many of the lessons of 9/11, like we all have a lot more in common than we think, and we all still have a common enemy who would like destroy us.
And lately, we seem intent on destroying ourselves. The Congress and the President can’t agree on anything. The American public is fed up with our entire political system. We will turn on each other over the slightest perceived barb. We have become terribly thin-skinned in a country that has always thrived on debate and differences of opinion.
Here’s a news flash: ALL LIVES MATTER, not just black ones, or white ones or anyone in any particular line of work. We are Americans. We believe all life is precious and that everyone is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We even have a document that says as much.
Please join me this day in a prayer for peace, peace for the world, peace for America, but also for peace within America. May we all be reminded this day, how strong we are when we join together. May we be reminded how strong we are when we return to God.
“Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.” James 4:10
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂