The Unseen Here and Now . . .
Stuart
Revercomb
Stuart
Revercomb is a marketing consultant and joyously married father of four
children. He seems to remember someone once telling him he ought to be
a writer. "The Unseen Here and Now" -- Thursdays.
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September 27, 2001
What's
So Beautiful About America?
Over the last two weeks Americans have taken a beating. Having suffered
a horrific attack upon our population and our national psyche, there has
been little to raise our hopes as we have come to grips with the reality
that 6398 of us would not be coming out of the decimated ruins of the
world trade center.
6398.
Repeat that number out loud a couple of times and consider the lives and relationships and the families that will never be the same - or in the case of children who have lost their parents, never be at all.
It knocks you down.
Way down.
But in the words of Vince Lombardi : "It's not whether you get knocked down... It's whether you get up."
And get up we will. America is finding it's feet, and it is doing so in typical American fashion - with heart, and soul and a gritty determination that refuses to accept defeat. Especially at the hands of thugs who slaughter the innocent in the name of God. Those who perpetrate such evil are on a fast road to hell, and if you're like most of us, you're eager to help send them there.
Sit tight. Be patient. Justice tends to happen. And when it does, it will be in God's time - not our own. But, whether the ultimate settling out of things suits your sense of it or not, one thing is for certain - America is rising.
Consider our response to the tragedy of September 11th.
Did we point fingers of blame? Did we call for concessions to the terrorists so that we could continue to live our lives at a level to which we were accustom? Did we mourn the loss of our buildings or our "financial hub" which in reality was the financial center of the world? Did we call for a change in our government?
The answer is an emphatic NO. The same answer our rescue crews gave when asked if they wanted to exit the second tower after the first one had fallen. In the name of all that is good and right in the world they had a job to do, and they refused to abandon those who so desperately needed them. Like them we are beginning to shine as never before.
In response to the tragedy of September 11th :
- We have put together the greatest urban search and rescue team ever assembled and have had to turn away thousands more who have driven to New York from as far away as California to offer assistance.
- We have donated so many supplies for the rescue and recovery efforts that warehouses in New York are overflowing and nearby Shea Stadium has been pressed into service to store the materials.
- We have mobilized our military reserves in record time and have seen a 25 percent increase in the registration of service personnel.
- We have rallied behind our government
and given our Commander in Chief an unheard of 90 percent approval record
- the highest percentage ever recorded.
- As of Tuesday September 25th, Americans had donated over 300 million
dollars for the relief efforts in New York - over half of that designated
for the families of victims and rescue personnel who lost their lives.
- Displays of patriotism and unity are so prevalent as to be no longer noticeable, and few of us can hear our National Anthem or "America The Beautiful" without tears of pride welling up from deep within us.
- As a nation we have sought God for both healing and guidance and have demonstrated a comfort with our "collective spirituality" heretofore unseen in modern America. Surely our private prayers have outnumbered even our justified feelings of outrage and revenge.
If all this were the stuff of over-sentimentality or an effort to "play it like we think it ought to be played", none of it would be particularly significant, and the efforts we make to rid the world of the kind of evil that could perpetrate such horror would ultimately be more of the same.
But we are driven by the same longing for truth and justice and freedom and peace that our forebearers were, and no matter the depth of our human failings, it links us to the will of a just and loving God.
C.S. Lewis felt that the best proof of such a God was our inexplicable longing for these truths - that they were indeed "self evident" as some guy named Jefferson was want to say, and therefore pointed to an eternal presence of love that is beyond our ability to fully comprehend.
For all the stars in the heavens, including the ones upon our flag, I'm inclined to think they were right.
May his will be ours - this day and always.