Below is an essay I wrote the night of 9/11/2001. As you may imagine, I received my share of hate mail from fellow Americans, but I also received many congratulations and thanks for this essay.
Today, as I learned of the Amish Americans. whose children were murdered recently, inviting the widow of the assailant to their daughter's funeral, and sharing contributions sent to them with her and her children . . . I cried. And I remembered the essay I had written on September 11th, 2001.
Where would America be if we as a nation had heeded the Amish lesson, Jesus' lessons, the path I described on the night of 9/11/2001 in the below essay? We would not be waist deep in Afghanistan and neck deep in Iraq. On 9/11/2001 one million Iranians came out in vigils to tell America they "were with us." The world would have stood by us, whatever we did.
The essay below I wrote on that day offered an option that could have changed the world forever and insured a world of support and allies that would have done everything to make sure America stayed safe and healthy. But, today, because of the choice we made, the choice demanded by the same people who sent me hate mail for the below essay . . . we are loathed worldwide, and our national treasures are running thru our fingers, as our young die in foreign lands, hundreds of thousands who will be damaged forever by what they have been sent to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are 250,000 damaged vets from the first gulf war, depleted uranium, etc. How many young Americans will we need to care for from the current wars.
Those Christians, like Falwell and Roberts, who put Jesus on a high high pedestal, so high that we don't need to try to follow his teaching of love, non-judgment, and the power of forgiveness, are false prophets. The Amish who suffered the recent tragedy and employed Jesus' request for forgiveness are the true followers of Christ. I hope America can learn from them.
Jesus offered us a great lesson to help us heal from bad times. We turn our backs on that lesson at our own peril. I'm not talking about some afterlife punishment, but rather the peril of the ramifications of our actions right here on earth, in this earthly life. Jesus' lessons were not airy fairy platitudes. They were practical, common sense, self help lessons for humanity in trying times like these.
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9/11:
America's Broken Heart - "Finding Miracles in the Valley of Death"
By Bill Douglas
This horror we have witnessed as a nation today reminds me of a personal horror I had years ago. Many years ago I lost my youngest son after watching him lie comatose in a hospital bed for a month.
The levels of consciousness I went through, are, according to psychologists, the same levels we are now going through as a nation. The first is a shocked numbness, the next rage and anger, and this followed by a great sorrow that seems so unbearable that sometimes people stay locked in the rage/anger stage in order to avoid the sorrow that seems so desolate and overwhelming.
America will never be the same. What that means depends on where we go from here. We can allow this tragedy and travesty to harden us and throw us into the never-ending spiral of violence that Israelis and Palestinians have found themselves in for so many years. We can declare war on a harboring nation and unleash the full might of the U.S. military power to pound that nation into oblivion, including some civilians that would be considered "collateral damage" just as the terrorists considered these victims "collateral damage". Or we can have our hearts opened by this enormous loss we have collectively experienced, and forever be changed in the way we feel when we see a bomb explode in the Palestinian homelands, Belgrade, Baghdad, or any other city in the world.
Naturally, I and other Americans felt black anger seeing the innocent suffering unfolding in New York and Washington, and not really sure of who, what, or how to direct that swelling rage. I had felt that before, the night of my son's death -- I was so hardened and angry, at the doctors, at myself, at God, at life, that I almost walked away from the most precious experience of my life.
My son's heart had failed several times, and my wife and I had agreed that if it happened again, we wouldn't revive him by torturing his tiny frame with anymore shocks or needles. So, on the night they called me into the hospital at 3 am with my two older toddlers in tow, I knew how the night would end. But, I didn't really because I allowed "something miraculous" to happen that night.
At first when the nurse asked me if I wanted to hold Isaac I said, no, so thick with anger that I had told myself that Isaac's soul had passed on and that this body was no longer my precious boy. But, a voice came to my mind that said, "no, you must now stand in the center of life, and feel it all, or forever run from the real meaning of everything."
By William E. Douglas, Jr., who is author of "The Amateur Parent – A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe." Bill has been a guest columnist for the Kansas City Star, The Business Journal, and other media worldwide. His past essays include, "Exposing the 9/11 Conspiracy Wingnuts," "The Explosion of the 9-11 Truth Movement -- US Media's Dirty Little Secret," "Good Night, and Good Luck - WMD, NIST, Popular Mechanics, 9/11 and Media Crimes" and also "Why the Jewish Community Should Demand 9/11 Truth."
I cried when I read your words--those you wrote just after 9/11 and those written about the Amish. When I saw in the news that the parents of the dead children had reached out to the widow of the man who'd caused the tragedy, I was touched by their compassion and courage. Certainly, if Americans had reacted like this after 9/11, instead of allowing George Bush to whip up nationalism, instead of allowing this reprehensible exploitation, we would be a stronger nation today. My nephew would be alive. So would all the troops who have died in this senseless war. So would who knows how many Iraqis who had nothing to do with 9/11 and who knows how many Afghans who had nothing to do with 9/11.
Thanks for writing about your personal grief. Thanks for an article that truly inspires. Missy
by
Missy Comley Beattie (163 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 47 comments)
on Friday, October 6, 2006 at 8:22:59 AM
I just wanted to let you know that the article you wrote on 9/11 and tied it to the Amish horror is wonderful. I cannot help but think if the money that has been wasted in Iraq because of hatred. It would be such a different world--
Thanks again--
Sandy Wittliff
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Sandy Wittliff (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 7 comments)
on Friday, October 6, 2006 at 10:26:59 AM
I shook my fist at God and turned my back on Him for many years after the loss of my brother and sister. I lost my mind and then got it back and when I reemerged from the shadow of death I came back healed .It took time and I know as a nation we can do it too. We are collectively realizing the basic inhumanity of violent death and that revenge is not sweet. Now we need to look to the truths we always held to be self evident. We are all equal and responsible for our fellow man. We must now convince our political demagogues of these truths and start at the ballot box.
by
cluelessfl (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 184 comments)
on Friday, October 6, 2006 at 12:02:24 PM
I found it hard to read your essay for the tears that kept welling up in my eyes. I can only imagine the depth of your suffering at the loss of a child. The only point of reference I can use is the depth of my sorrow at losing a good friend who died more or less right before my eyes in the wake of a fire in our apartment. It took years for my heart to heal, for the pain to lessen, and for me to be able to face life on both firmly planted feet one more time.
I as angry at god. I was angry at the candle holder that caused the fire. I was angry at the place that sold said holder. Finally, I was angry at myself for not letting the place burn to the ground instead of trying to put out the fire ourselves.
When I saw that not only were the Amish relatives of the girls killed willing to forgive the attacker, but also demanded that some of the donations sent their way were also sent to the attacker's widow, I was left dumbfounded!
I am very much against mainstream christianity because I see none of the charlatans who claim to know the mind of Jesus Christ doing anything even close to following his words. As a matter of fact, the last person I knew who followed the message of Christ was the roommate I spoke of who died as a result the fire.
When I saw how the Amish responded to this horror, with dignity, humility, and grace, I knew that the message of Christ was still out there, and being practiced by true peoples of faith.
I think we all need to take a moment to ponder the power of the actions taken by the Amish in response to this atrocity. Is forgiveness a quaint, antiquated throwback to a more simple time, or is it perhaps what it's going to take to bring our poor tortured planet and species back to a point of balance?
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Friday, October 6, 2006 at 4:24:51 PM
In our mangled culture, rage and revenge are more acceptable than forgiveness. Like so much else, it's 180 degrees out of phase.
With forgiveness, anger and fear dissipate. With forgiveness, understanding is possible. With forgiveness, it is but a small step to Peace, Love's other half.
by
Jim Prues (15 articles, 33 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 77 comments)
on Friday, October 6, 2006 at 4:52:42 PM
Thank you so very much for this article. Than you for sharing your faith and presenting to us an in-depth insight into the role of pain and suffering which seems to be our common human experience.
I am a minister of a denomination whose roots are founded in mainly four groups: The Amish, The Hutterites, The Swiss Brethren, and The Mennonites. These four groups are called "Anabaptist" in History. The Greek prefix 'ανα' or 'ana' means 'again'. They were called Anabaptist because they believed that baptism was only meant for those old enough to make a decision of either rejecting the call of Christ or accepting that call. When a person accepted the call of Christ, they baptized them by immersion although the person had previous been baptized by the Roman Catholic, Congregational, Presbyterian or Lutheran Church as a baby.
These four groups of Anabaptist were terribly persecuted by the Congregationalist (followers of Ulrich Zwingli), the Lutherans (followers of Martin Luther), the Presbyterians (followers of John Calvin) and the Roman Catholic Church. About 500,000 thousand of these Anabaptist were put to death by burning at the stake, drowning in rivers and lakes and a number of other methods.
There were many Anabatist groups who held very different or varied beliefs of doctrine (teachings). These four groups mentioned above held these major beliefs in common:
1. The Bible was the only measure of all Faith and Practice;
2. The Lutheran doctrine of salvation only by grace through faith in the finished workd of Christ on the cross;
3. They basically held all goods in common;
3. The church consists of true believers in Christ (not an earthly organization) and this true Church serves a Christ's ambassadors on the earth. The church is to reflect the love and forgiveness of Christ as He taught-love each other, love your neighbors, love your enemies and stay true to New Testament doctrine (teachings);
4. They are absolute pacifists.
5. They believe in an absolute Separation of Church and State to the extent they cannot serve in anyway in any war and hold taxes in escrow during a time of war which are given back to the state with interest after the war.
6. Since the church is ordained (appointed) of God with one mission and the State is ordained of God with another mission, they cannot and will not serve in any State function, even as a street sweeper; they hold that the Church's mission and the State mission are contradictory. For this purpose there must be the absolute separation. The Holy Scriptures they would usually point out is The Letter to the Romans, chapter 13; verses 1-7 (Romans 13:1-7). There are other New Testament passages they would use.
Verse 3 states, 'For rulers are not a terror to good works. but to the evil. Will you not then be afraid of the power (of the state)? Do that which is good, and you shall have praise of the same.
Verse 4, 'For he (the state ruler) is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid; for he (the state ruler) bears not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil.'
One can easily see how the member of the state and a member of the true Church cannot be part of each other. The true Church member must 'love your enemies and do good to them that persecute you' while the member of the state must bear the sword on them who do evil.
I have hurriedly written this at one sitting. My danger is to caricature. I trust that this is an accurate and honest view. One can easily go to Google and 'Google in' Amish,' 'Hutterite,' 'Swiss Brethren,' and 'Mennonite.' Find one of their sites and read for yourself. They are a very misunderstood and a very wonderful people. Their industry of farm life is as proverbial as their separate lives from the outside world. As human beings, they have their weaknesses and sins as we all do. If we were all Swiss Brethren or Mennonites there would be no wars; however, alas, that is not menat to be nor will it ever be on this earth in this life.
Phil Ratliff,
I am just a Baptist (the 'ana' has dropped off according Grimm's Law of languages. It happened sometime in the sixteen century during the second great Anabaptist persecution. During that time my denomination became known simply as Baptist. Sometimes I am afraid because of the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell that more than the 'Ana' has dropped off of my loved denomination. They have hijacked my denomination as Bush and Cheney have hijacked my Constitution. It is a sad time.).
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 970 comments)
on Friday, October 6, 2006 at 9:20:05 PM
7 comments
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