Remembering 9/11 - The Chemistry of Forgetfulness - Revisited

Today is the 15th Anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York by two commercial jetliners, another plane ramming into the military fortress that is the Pentagon and the heroic struggle that ended with a crash landing in a field in Pennsylvania, preventing a possible attack on the White House. All these events occurring at the hands of Islamic extremists on 9/11/2001. I published this article back on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. With all of the terrorist mass shootings and suicide bombings happening around the world, including here at home, I think it is still relevant today. There are still people hell bent on our destruction.

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Ask anyone old enough to remember where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001 and they can tell you. Our Nation was rocked awake from its sleepy dreams of safety and protection as the Twin Towers came down and two other planes exploded, each with a passenger list full of Americans. Men, with hatred in their hearts, rammed four jumbo jets into three landmarks and a field in Pennsylvania. The cry was "We shall not forget".

For those that were there or those who lost family and friends, they truly will not forget. The tragic images and unbelievable grief are burned into their memories forever. But what about the rest of our Nation? What is it we will not forget? It needs to be more than just a fading memory of the loss of 3000 American lives that day.

Time is the catalyst of forgetfulness and comfort is its substrate. Complacency is the morphine for the pain and we have become addicted. We have forgotten.

We have forgotten the God we cried out to that day for safety and protection, compassion and mercy.

• Spontaneous Memorials popped up all over Ground Zero shortly after the attack. Were these just the seed that fell on the rocky soil? (Mark 4:5 NIV)
  
• Congress joined across the aisle and embraced - with calls for prayer and songs of unity. We cannot do this today, even as our nation sinks into the quicksand of backbreaking debt.
  
• Now are we, in the name of tolerance, denying the same call for prayer on this day of remembrance? Tolerance once meaning open-mindedness now forces an idea on all and calls anyone who does not agree intolerant (or worse - hatred/hate speech).
  
• We don't want to display the Cross from Ground Zero because some might find the Cross offensive?
  

We have forgotten the evil in the hearts of those who did this.

• Radical Islam is still alive and well, working for the destruction of all who do not believe in its tenets. Yet we continue to support them with our addiction to oil and our acceptance of their treatment of Israel.
  
• We squabbled over the building of a mosque near Ground Zero while it seems any peaceful and compassionate religion should see that this is not the time nor place for such an action.
  

We have forgotten the innocents who died at work or on a plane, their families and the men and women who rushed to their aid.

• The Memorial at Ground Zero seems to have been more about political posturing than it is about those who suffered and died there. Men, hungry for fame and notice argued over the design much too long. After ten years it is just now coming together, slowed by these continued squabbles about how the site should look, not to be completed for another two years or more.
  

We can not forget the pain of that day, the suffering of those who innocently died, the memory of those who rushed in unselfishly to save those they could and in doing so suffered or died with them. But especially we can not forget the unity that descended upon our great Nation in a cause and cry for freedom; freedom from tyranny, freedom from hatred, freedom to call upon a God who loves us in our time of suffering. It is this pain and suffering that must be seared into our minds and hearts. We are a great Nation that has been blessed by God and we must continue to fight for the freedoms we have fought so strongly for in the past.

Without pain and without difficulty we come to believe we do not need God, that we can do all on our own. Sometimes a wake up call is needed to take us back to what made this country great. The continued remembering of the events of September 11, 2001 can be that wake up call. This Tenth Anniversary remembrance should not just be a day of great speeches with empty words, or halfhearted soliloquies, but a day for remembering we are one Nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

We must remember, we can never forget.

"If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV)"