I spent most of the day yesterday watching and reading and reliving the events of September 11^th, 2001. I was surprised to feel the fury welling up inside of me five years out from the actual event. Even more, knowing the opportunities we had to take bin Laden out in the years leading up to the most tragic event in American history.

Something else struck me more than the images on the screen. Even more than the black smoke against the clear blue September morning.

I was struck by the lack of discussion pertaining to what day it was. Not one person I spoke to at work said anything about that fateful day five years prior. Not one person I met was enraged. Not one person I met showed any signs of reliving the events within themselves. The closest I came was someone who was trying to discuss 9-11 conspiracy theories with me...which only fueled the fires of anger that burned inside of me.

What I miss is America on September 12^th, 2001. The America that put political differences aside. The America that put racial and religious differences aside. The America that stood in line, all over the country, to give blood for those directly impacted by the horrendous attacks on our homeland. The America who rallied behind the President who said, in short, “Look out. We’re coming for you.” What happened to that America?

Five years later, we’ve let politics, race, religion, in fact, all of our differences puncture through the united fabric that America became in the days and weeks after the New York and Washington DC attacks. We’ve divided ourselves along the same old partisan lines. We’ve become “the America that was”.

We can not revert to our old ways of thinking. We can’t somehow think that we can defeat the enemies before us with division. We must unite in our efforts to remove the threat of evil around the entire world, not just in a few select countries.

Stand behind your President, America! And have no doubt; if you live in America, he IS your President. You don’t have to agree with everything he says or does – I don’t even do that, and I love the guy – just stand behind him as a united people and we can lessen the evil in the world. It won’t all go away, not until Christ returns, but we can make this a better place to live in the meantime.

Don’t like it? Well, you still have that right...

God Bless,

Doug