We All Belong!

 9/11/2001.  So tragic.  So many lost.  I know you will see a multitude of tributes over the next few days.  This won't be one that you'll see elsewhere.  

I always see or hear "We will never forget!"  What does that mean?  What lessons have we learned?  How were we changed?  I am not talking as a collective.  I am asking you to question yourself. 

In the days, weeks and months following 9/11/2001 we witnessed the best of the USA.  Volunteers poured into NYC to assist in the rescue area.  On the day of the attacks we watched brave men & women rush into buildings to rescue others when ordinary people would have run the other way.  Pride of being an American was at an all time high.  Race, national origin, religion, ethnicity played no factor and we were at our best. 

Let's be clear, 9/11 was an attack because evil people hate our way of life.  We saw that at the time but have since forgotten.  We don't place the same value on our way of life as we did following 9/11.  The same types of evil people have tried a different attack and it's results are more devastating.  The tactic being used is to divide and conquer.  They are winning this battle.  Groups are being identified as evil, not because of their actions but because of their skin color.  I can't imagine why anyone would consider teaching a child that they have what they have due to privilege.  I can't imagine teaching a child that they have odds stacked against them due to their skin color.  Children are to be nurtured, loved, made to feel secure; not to be made ashamed or bitter.  If we want to help the disadvantaged among us to succeed we must reinforce their self esteem, help them gain skills and stop the destruction of the nuclear family.  

Further, the tactic of identity separation is destructive.  Anything that drives us further apart is counter productive & we are allowing that to happen.  On 9/11 and shortly after we first identified as Americans regardless of our other "identities."  Those that hate us for our way of life have succeeded in further dividing us with this approach.  I am not an American first but I am a Man of God, a husband, father, and an American that is proud of his Italian heritage.  Our heritage, religion, politics and more can be celebrated, remembered and lived while recognizing that the freedom provided in the USA allows us to do so.  That is why most of our ancestors came here and why this is the greatest nation in the history of the Earth.  

My lesson from 9/11 is that evil exists and is a force more powerful than I recognized.  It continues to attack and we are failing to see it.  Most importantly I learned that WE ALL BELONG to this great nation that we call the United States.  Let's not be divided.  

Join me in praying for those that we lost on 9/11, that they are with our Lord and that one day their loved ones will be happily reunited with them and experience the love & peace that they lost that day.  Join me in praying that all of our children feel loved, secure and nurtured & that we find ways to better help all of them maximize their potential.  Let's also pray for a recognition that as Americans that we are Brothers and Sisters with more in common than we recognize and that we learn to love others that we don't understand or that we disagree with as God would have us to love them.  

This Bible verse stuck with me after the sacrifices of our First Responders on 9/11.  John 15:12-13 "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."  Let's work daily to expand the numbers of those that we consider friends to include those that we differ with and to be blind to those differences much like the brave men and women that rushed into the Twin Towers and Pentagon to save others on 9/11.